


Hazbin Hotel: The Branch

by Dignity_Pending



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:27:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21805159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dignity_Pending/pseuds/Dignity_Pending
Summary: A dusty brown canine, a distrusting man with a troubled history, has dreamed of one day finding a way out of Hell, and to make amends with what he has left behind. Lewis Brown, has checked into the hotel.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

The lips of a coyote caressed the back end of a long cigar. Using three fingered hands at the ends of long, feathered wings, he pulled a lighter from the pocket of his canvas jacket, and lit the butt on fire. He took a long drag, before pulling it out of his mouth to exhale a cloud of smoke. He adjusted his flat cap with his free clawed hand.

He sat in a bar; a bar resting within the fiery depths of Hell itself. However, Hell was not as fiery as one would expect. No, in fact, Hell was very much alive, with people, real people, moving to and fro in commute, working jobs, breathing, eating, and existing. Of course, that being said, not all of them were good; in fact, most were very bad, horrible, even, as, after all, it was Hell. But some were… okay. This… animal, was one of those few ‘okay’ people. At least, he liked to think of himself that way.

He glanced with his blood red pupils and dark orange irises, looking at his company in the bar. He sat at a round table, with a beer in front of him, surrounded by his best friends, family even. They were thieves. They stole when they were alive, and stole now, when they were dead. They kept their eyes out for each other. They cared about each other. At least, the coyote liked to think so.

There was Susan, Susan Barlow, a punk like demon with the left half of her head shaved, the other side having red hair so long it draped to the middle of her back. She had large brown eyes, and her body took a mostly human form, with some bat like features including a small, flat snout; and a pair of wings sprouting from her back. She possessed smooth, silver skin, and she wore a loose fitting, orange sweater and short shorts. Her motives? Well she robbed for the thrill of it. The coyote appreciated her company, to an extent, but disapproved of her motives.

Then there was Sebastian Band, a large, reptilian simpleton, sharing traits from multiple reptile groups and traits from great apes. He possessed long, lanky forelimbs, and short, stubby back limbs; he had a long tail that dragged behind him; green pebble like scales all over his body; and he had no face. No, instead of a face, or head for that matter, he had the long, sturdy skull of a bison, with flames in its eye sockets. He rarely spoke, so it was hard to get a read on his personality. But he did seem to care. His motives… well, nobody really knew.

Finally, of course, their was the coyote, Lewis Brown. A body similar overall to that of the American coyote, but with some adjustments. He had long, feathered wings, and he could fly quite well. At the ends of those wings: three fingered hands, which he used to manipulate the objects around him. Instead of a traditional canid tail, he had a long, flat, semi-prehensile tail, which he used as a rudder when in flight. He wore a flat cap, and a canvas jacket, and he had intimidating orange eyes, with blood red pupils.

“I’m bored…,” Lew grumbled, scratching his ear with his back leg.

“Yeah,” Susan agreed, rolling her shoulders.

Sebastian let out a hollow noise, not unlike that of wind blowing thru a hollow tube, as his response.

“Let’s get out of here.” Lewis pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and set it on the table as pay. He and his friends than proceeded to leave the premises.

“Now what,” Susan asked flatly once they left.

Lew looked down at his paws. “Well, um… I- I have some things I need to do, so, I’ll probably just go home.”

“Oh…” Susan glanced away from him, “that’s okay… I probably- I mean I do have something to do too, so… I’ll probably just do the same thing.”

“Okay…” Lew, spread his wings and turned around. “See you tomorrow.”

“‘Kay,” Susan said sadly, as Lewis got a running start before jumping into the air and taking flight. Susan turned around and flew off the other way. Sebastian stood alone in the middle of the sidewalk. He let out a sigh-like noise, and began to walk aimlessly about the street.

…

The door slowly creaked open as Lew pushed it forward. As he tried to close the door behind him, it got stuck, and he had to hit it with his head.

“Son of a bitch!” He shouted, rubbing the top of his battered skull. He quickly shook himself off in the manner of a dog, and pulled a flask from his jacket, a pack of cigars, and a phone, and then proceeded to carry the jacket to his couch, and lay it on the back of said couch. He put the cigars and phone on top of a nightstand to the right of the couch, and kept the flask in his left hand. The couch, frankly the whole house, was a disaster, filthy and dreary; a makeshift building. Even the walls themselves were falling apart. He sat on his torn up old couch, and stretched a wing over to the small nightstand to his right. He opened a drawer on it, and pulled out an old photo.

The photo depicted three people: an adult male, an adult female, and a young female child, all of which were humans. The adult male wore a flat cap, and a canvas jacket; the male was him. He ran a clawed finger along the child in the photo. A tear slowly ran down his face and onto the photo, and he quickly wiped the aforementioned tear off. He wiped any remaining tears from his eyes, and folded the photo, before putting it back in the night stand. His body shook, and he struggled to hold back his tears. He removed the cap from his flask and took a long swig, and the pain he felt lessened. He took a heavy breath, before grabbing the TV remote, and turning the TV that was in front of him on. He decided to flip to the news, cause that was always fun.

On the news was the usual, at least for this time of year. Just as after any extermination, demons had begun to battle for territory, not unlike wild animals. He scoffed at what he saw. But then something different happened. An interview… with the princess of hell. Now that was new. He had yet to hear from her. Of course, she was probably a real dick, being the daughter of Lucifer and all, but still, it was a welcome change. He took another swig from his flask, straightened his back, and leaned toward the TV.

He was stunned by what he observed. A hotel… to rehabilitate sinners!? How absurd! No one had ever attempted something like that before. Mostly because nobody was stupid enough to. He turned off the TV immediately after hearing of this ridiculous idea. On top of that idiocy, there was the peculiarity that Lucifer’s daughter- oh sorry, Charlotte, was not a massive, hard, throbbing, dick! She was kind! Adorable even! And she was naive enough to think that sinners could be redeemed! Redemption! For a demon! How impossible! Lew would know; he had tried!

“Hah! Redemption… no… no that’s stupid!” He said, looking down at his feet, laughing.

“Wait… is it?” He looked up with an expression of perplexity.

“No, no! Of course not! Hah! I laugh at you and your asinine logic, you dumb, devil, bitch!” He exclaimed, pointing at the TV as if someone was there to which he was talking.

“Wait… but is it.” He gave a perplexed look, as he rubbed his chin with his free wing-hand.

“No! Yes? No!!! Yes!? No!!!! Maybe?... Maybe.” He shouted, psychotically arguing with himself like a maniac.

“Maybe… maybe it is.” He reached over to his nightstand again and pulled out his photograph.

“Maybe…” He stared at the photograph. A spark of inspiration lit in his eyes, and his expression changed from pensive to hopeful. He grabbed his jacket, cap, flask, phone, and cigars, before bursting forth from the door of his home. He paused for a second, however, just before he took off.

“Is this impulsive?” He thought to himself, frozen in motion. “Fuck it,” he said aloud, as he jumped into the air and took flight. Within seconds he saw the sign for the “Happy Hotel”, on a large building in the distance.

“Wow,” he thought to himself, “that is not subtle at ALL.”


	2. The Branch Chapter 1: Jumbalaya

Lew had waited on the porch for a little over an hour, as no one would answer the door. However, he figured they must still be coming back from the news station, so he waited. He waited so long that now, he was asleep, lying on the hotel porch like a dog.

Soon enough, he was awakened by the sound of an automobile motor coming into the driveway. Without moving much, he opened one of his eyes, and peered at the vehicle; a bizarrely shaped, light pink limo.

As the limo slowly pulled to a stop, two goat-like demons got out from the main cab. They looked at Lew with puzzled expressions, and he responded by craning his head up, and giving the two a venomous glare. They looked at him as if affronted, and glared back with exaggerated pouts. Lou rolled his eyes and looked away from them. Then, in the corner of his eye, he saw someone else step out from the back of the vehicle; it was the princess.

He immediately launched up and sat straight, attempting to pull off his most stoic possible stance. The goats continued to glare at him, and he responded by quickly snarling at them before returning to his stance.

As Charlotte exited her limousine, she looked toward the door to see the coyote sitting there. The princess clasped her hands over her mouth, letting out a loud squeal like a tween schoolgirl. Lew raised one of his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side at the response.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” She screamed, jumping up and down, “Vaggie there’s a puppy at the door!!!”

“Wha-“ Lou was cut off before being able to finish, interrupted by Charlotte’s incessant screaming.

“And he’s wearing a hat!!!!” She was bouncing so quickly now, she was practically vibrating.

“What?” Another girl said, stepping out of the vehicle.

“That must be Vaggie,” Lew thought, still staring confused at the scene in front of him.

Vaggie looked fourth at the ‘dog’ on their step. “Charlie, I don’t think-”

“Eeehee!!!” The princess continued to squeal, suddenly, running to the porch and miraculously managing to heave the ‘dog’ into her arms. Lew would have tried to escape, but he was frozen out of shock.

“Vaggie,” Charlotte cooed to the girl, holding Lew, “Can we keep him?”

“Charlie, I don’t think-“ Vaggie tried to dismiss before Charlie stared straight into her soul with the saddest puppy dog eyes she could make.

“Charlie…” Vaggie tried to overcome the effects of Charlie’s sad face, but ultimately failed. “...Fine…” she sighed.

“Yay!” Charlotte- ‘Charlie’, cooed happily.

“I’M NOT A DOG!!!!” Lew finally managed to screech, causing Charlie to leap back, dropping him flat on the floor. “Ouch…”

“Oh! Sorry!” Charlie apologized promptly before kneeling down to try and help him. He swatted her hands away with his wings.

“Don’t!... Just. Don’t.” He grimaced with folded back ears, before getting up off the ground and shaking himself off. He picked his cap off from the ground and dusted it off before he put it back on.

“May I ask why you’re here?” The girl who’s name was apparently Vaggie asked, with an oddly disapproving facial expression.

“Yeah,” Lew responded giving Vaggie a suspicious look, “I was here because I was curious about you’re program.”

“Really?” Charlie asked, a hopeful smile slowly growing on her face.

“Yes,” he said cautiously, giving her a nervous look as he slowly leaned away from her.

“Don’t worry,” she said with an embarrassed chuckle, “I’m not gonna grab you again.”

Lew let out a relieved breath, “Good. Cause if it wasn’t for your advanced social status, I would’ve bitten you.” He scratched casually behind his ear with one of his back feet. “But back to topic, yes, I am interested in your little rehab project.”

Charlie’s smile grew wider.

“Okay what the hell’s going on out here,” a Steve Buscemi esc voice asked, coming from a spider-like demon who stepped out of the limo. “What’s up with the mangey pup?”

“Mangey?” Lew asked, folding back his ears and glaring at the arachnid.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” the demon said matter-of-factly as he continued giving him a blank, cold expression.

“Who’s the six legged freak?” Lew glared at the two female demons beside him.

“Yah tellin’ me ya don’t know who I am?” Angel looked at Lew as if he was insulted.

“No sorry,” the canid said with a smirk, “I don’t hire hookers.”

“Excuse- oh wait that’s true.” Angel said, realizing his retort was pointless.

“I figured.”

“Okay that’s enough you two.” Vaggie crossed her arms, glaring at them.

Lew folded his ears back submissively.

“Vag…” Charlie said to the girl calmly with pleading eyes. Vaggie reluctantly calmed down.

Lou grunted, “I’m beginning to reconsider you’re program.”

“Nonononono!” Charlie panicked, “I’m so sorry! It’s not usually like this I swear!”

“Well you didn’t exactly roll out the welcome wagon,” Lew said with an unamused expression, “between you attempting to kidnap me, her immediately disapproving of me, and him… well just existing-“

Angel glared at him.

“-I see no reason for me to stay.” Lew finished, giving Charlie a glare. Charlie’s expression changed into one of utter sadness; she looked crushed. It was one of the saddest things Lew had ever seen- well sort of- but he wouldn’t let it change his mind. At least he didn’t want to let it. But it did anyway.

“I-uh-hmph,” He growled, “Fine… I’ll stay. For a bit, at least.”

“Yes!” Charlie cheered, grabbing one of Lew’s wing-hands and shaking it vigorously, “You won’t regret this!”

“Already am,” He responded.

The six demons entered the hotel, and when Lew saw it, he was shocked. It was almost, almost, as depressing as his own home. From what it looked like, Charlotte had a celebration prepared ahead of time for any demons that would show up. However, the decorations were all sagging down, or tattered on the ground. Lew walked over to a tattered welcome banner, picking it off the ground and observing it.

“What’s this, Mrs…?” He asked, simultaneously looking for what he could call her and the reason for the ‘cheery’ decor.

“Call me Charlie,” she responded, “And as for that, well you see, I had this big welcome party planned for anyone who would arrive for the hotel’s grand opening! Unfortunately… you’re the only one who’s shown up...” She finished, sadly looking at her feet.

“Hmm.” Was Lew’s only response. He walked over to a large wooden crate, hopping on top of it and lying down.

“May I ask what your name is?” Charlie questioned, an innocent smile returning to her face.

Lew yawned. “Call me Lewis. Or Lew, Lewey, so on and so forth. I don’t really care.” He replied blankly.

“Oh. Okay Lewy.” Charlie took a seat on another nearby crate. She simply sat there, looking down steadily, before choosing to get up and walk out the door for a moment.

“Where’s she going?” Lew asked, apathetically.

“None of your business.” Vaggie replied, still with her same suspicious tone toward him. She was sitting on a couch not to far away.

“May I ask you something else?” He asked, glaring at her.

“Depends on what it is,” she grumbled, crossing her arms, and glaring at him.

“Okay. Why are you being such a passive aggressive ass?”

She glared harder at him. “That’s one of those questions you’re not gonna get an answer to,” she hissed.

“Fine,” Lew growled, folding his ears back once again. He impatiently tapped the claws of his wing-hands on the surface of the crate. “So, where’s my room?”

“Charlie will show you when she’s back.”

“Right,” Lew said, smiling at her fakely.

“Hey Vaggie?” Charlie asked nervously as she finally arrived back from the door.

“What,” Vaggie whined, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“The Radio Demon is at the door!” She replied, fearfully.

“What!” Both Lew and Vaggie shouted at the same time, rocketing up from their seats.

“Who?” Angel asked, as he ate a popsicle in the background.

Lew made a double take at Angel.

“What?” He asked, holding up his hands.

“Nothing… just... I forgot that you were here.”

“And I wish you weren’t,” Angel mumbled mostly to himself, though he made sure it was loud enough for Lew to here.

“What do I do!” Charlie whined to Vaggie.

“Well, don’t let him in!” Vaggie exclaimed. Charlie began to head back to the door. As she did, Lew desperately dug at the sides of the crate, whining like a dog, trying to hide inside said crate. He heard the door open, and began struggling faster, as Vaggie left the room.

“You need help there buddy?” Angel asked sarcastically, smiling at him.

“Fuck off!” Lew yelled back, getting desperate enough to start gnawing on the corner of the crate.

And then it happened; the Radio Demon walked in: Alastor. As he walked in, he gazed his eyes on Lewis, halfway into a crate, his back leg sticking out as he looked over his shoulder. Vaggie pinched the bridge of her nose, and Charlie stared at him with a blank face.

“H-hey!” Lew said to the Radio Demon, slowly stepping out of his crate, his tail between his legs, and his ears folded back.

“Well hello my good man! And who are you again?”

Lou squinted at him suspiciously. “...No one.”

“Ah! Fantastic to meet you no one!” Alastor replied, grabbing Lew and shaking his hand. Before shoving him to the side. Lew stumbled and fell into the crate behind him.

“Hah!” Angel laughed at him. Lew simply sighed. Exhausted, he just layed in the crate, craning his head up and resting it on the edge of said crate, observing the scene that lay before him with anxiety. Then he heard something really startling; the reason that Alastor was here was to help run the hotel! He shook his head dismissively. Charlie seemed of moderate intellect. Surely she wouldn’t be stupid enough to except a deal from this murderous maniac!

And then. She. Accepted. It. Welp, at least she didn’t shake his hand. Lew slowly lowered his header into his crate, and slowly pulled the lid shut. Curiosity won him over though… somewhat. He slowly peeked his eyes out of the crate, staying hidden, but able to see the situation unfolding outside.

He could barely hear anything, and observed mostly thru gestures and movements. He observed Alastor’s interactions with the other people in the hotel, and eventually observed as he moved over to the fireplace. He watched as he snapped his fingers, and the fire swelled.

From the flames, a tiny demon was pulled out. She only had one eye, and she was the height of a child. “What. The. Fuck,” Lew thought to himself, also mouthing it.

The tiny cyclops demon began frantically moving about, casually lifting Charlie off of the ground as if she was the weight of a paper clip, and frantically beginning to clean the place.

Lew continued to watch, as Alastor summoned another demon from nowhere, a grumpy, old, winged cat. And he watched as he bribed him with alcohol. He watched as Charlie adorably squeezed her cheeks in happiness. And then he witnessed a musical number.

Miraculously, he managed to escape that nightmare just by staying inside of his box. It would seem that nobody even remembered he was here.

He watched the door of the hotel be blown from its hinges. At that point, he simply slowly closed the lid of the crate with a look of horror, hiding in complete darkness.

...

“Wait… where’s Lewey?” Said a female

voice from outside Lew’s crate; Charlie. He nervously looked out of his crate.

“Has the train wreck ended!?” He shouted across the room to the gaggle of demons.

“Oh thank god!” Charlie ran over to the crate. She reached toward him.

“DON’T! Touch me.” He growled at her.

“Oh right! sorry,” Charlie replied, smiling sheepishly. “I was worried; I thought you bailed on us.”

“Oh trust me, I have,” Lew replied, clumsily stumbling from his crate, “I’ve had enough of this ridiculous bullshit. There’s more lunatics in here than the entirety of Hell!”

“What!?” Charlie cried desperately, “No! Don’t leave!”

“Sayonara you little-” Lew started, before he looked at Charlie’s face. That face… Lewis reached into his coat pocket, pulled out his photo, and looked at it.

“What… what is it?” Charlie asked, kindly.

“It- it’s not important,” Lew replied quickly hiding the photo, wiping his eyes, and clearing his throat.

“I- I’ll stay,” He said.

“Okay…” Charlie stated, looking at him with calm eyes. “I swear, I’ll help you as best as I can.”

“Thank you.”

“Alistor’s making Jambalaya. You know… if you want any,” Charlie said, smiling at Lou.

“No, no that’s okay,” Lew responded, shaking himself off quickly, attempting to flush down his emotions. “That bastard probably poisoned it anyway.”

“Are you sure,” Charlie said, with a tone not incomparable to that of a concerned mother.

“Yes… I don’t much care for that stuff anyway, regardless of if it’s poisoned or not.”

“Well, okay,” Charlie replied, “It’ll probably be a bit till it’s ready; do you want me to show you to your room?”

“Yes,” Lew said, staring at his feet, before looking up to meet her in the eye with a smile, “Yes, I think I’d like that.”


	3. The Branch Chapter 2: Therapy

Lewis slowly opened his eyes. He craned his neck to look around the room, his room, in the Happy Hotel on the second floor. It was modest. Thow it didn't look the best it was better than his house. Mostly just because with all the other people, it felt less lonely. He stretched his body out on his bed, crawling out from beneath his sheets. He grabbed his cap from the nearby side table. He then hopped off the bed, and began exploring his room, talking to himself in the oddly insane manor he did when he was alone.

"Well!" He said, "Let's see here..." He slinked about the room, sniffing, and observing various things, until eventually, as he was observing his teeth in a mirror above the rooms dresser, he jumped when he heard a loud, rhythmic knocking at the door.

"Lewey!" Charlie singsonged from the other side of the door, "Good morning!"

"Mhm," he piped, pressed up against a wall in shock.

"We have breakfast ready for you!"

"Really?" Lew sighed, "Who made it?"

"Nifty!"

Lew flipped his head quickly toward the door. "The fuck is that?"

"The cute, little, girl that Allistor brought in!"

"Balls," He responded, "Have you eaten anything yet?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Lew sighed, "You're not dead after the Jambalaya so it's probably fine." He grabbed his coat, checking for his photo, then trotted to the door and opened it. Charlie stood there waiting happily. Unlike yesterday, when she was wearing black suspenders, a black bow tie, and a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up, she was now wearing a red blazer on top of that.

"Hello…" Lew said with a confused expression.

"Hey. Oh, right!" Charlie stepped out of the way and gesturing for him to go past.

"Thanks…". Lew stared at her nervously. He then catapulted himself off the banister and glided down to the bottom floor, landing haphazardly. "Hello Vaggie."

"Hey…" She replied quietly, glaring at him thru the corner of her eye.

"Hello weird cat person I've never seen before."

"Fuck off." The cat took a swig from a beer.

"We'll okay." Lew gave him a glare. "Hello you six-legged whore!" He waved at Angel with mock enthusiasm.

"Hello you mangey motherfucker!" Angel replied with the same mock enthusiasm.

"Hey!" Vaggie snapped. Lew shut up immediately and sat down, while Angel gave an eye roll before he stopped.

The whole building smelled of well cooked eggs and bacon. Angel, Vaggie, and the cat like demon Alistor brought in yesterday, all sat at the table as Nifty ran food from the kitchen to the people as if it were a restaurant. Charlie skipped down the stairs and took a seat next to Vaggie. "Good morning guys," Charlie singsonged as she pecked Vaggie on the cheek.

"Wait, you guys are together?" Lew darted his eyes at the two confusedly.

"Yeah!" Charlie piped happily.

"Like together together?"

"Yeah?" Charlie cocked her head to the side in confusion. Lew did the same.

"Why?"

Just in the nick of time to end this awkward exchange, Nifty tossed a plate of eggs, hash browns, and bacon in front of Lew. He jumped back in surprise, almost falling out of his chair.

"Can I ask you some questions?" Lew regained his composure, cocking his head with innocent curiosity, taking a bite of hash brown.

"Sure!" Charlie smiled happily.

"Alright." He swallowed. "Who the fuck's the cat?"

"His names Husk, he-" Charlie tried to explain before Lew dismissed her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever," Lew continued, "Now, with Vaggie: is she this aggressive to everyone, or just me?"

"Don't take it personally. She just needs some time to warm up, that's all." Charlie smiled at Lew calmly.

"I see." He nodded with a blank expression.

"Hey! I'm right here!" Vaggie growled throwing her hands into the air.

Charlie chuckled sheepishly, "Sorry." She booped Vaggie on the nose. Vaggie immediately calmed down and smiled at her.

"Hm. Cute," Lew thought to himself, his facial expression still deadpan.

"Hello!" The Radio Demon's voice echoed as he just appeared as if out of nowhere. Lew inhaled a chunk of egg and fell on the floor choking.

"Good morning Alastor," Charlie chirped, while Vaggie simply glared at him, saying nothing.

"It is a good morning indeed my dear Charlie!" Alastor chimed, rubbing her on the head. He took a seat at the table. "Nifty! Bring me some eggs please!"

It was only at this point that anyone noticed Lewis was choking. It was Angel, unfortunately, and his solution was to walk over to the situation and violently stomp on his chest.

"FUCK!" Lew yelled, as the egg flew out of his trachea, "Jesus you coulda broken my fucking rib cage!"

"Yeah but I didn't!" Angel stated, seemingly proud of himself, smiling smugly at Lew.

"But-w-jus- Ugh," Lew sighed exasperated, slowly lifting himself off the ground. He glared at Angel before setting his chair back up and sitting in it. Angel went back to his seat.

"Okay!" Charlie piped happily, "So, after everybody's finished with breakfast, today we're gonna do a bit of a therapy session."

"Therapy?" Lew flicked one of his ears back and frowned, before regaining his composure, "Alright, what do we have to do?"

"Well, today's mostly going to be about you. I just want to get you introduced to the rest of the group."

"Group? Up until today there was only one person here," Lew said with a glare.

"Well yeah, but now there's three new people!" Charlie cheered excitedly, "Now we can actually have a proper session!"

Lew pushed his plate out of the way and tiredly laid his head on the table. "Whatever."

…

Charlie happily trotted ahead as she led 'the gang' into a pink painted room with a circle of chairs in the center. She carried a clipboard with multiple papers on it, and a pen, presumably to take notes.

"Okay, you all can sit anywhere you like," Charlie said happily, gesturing at the chairs. She took a chair front and center as so she could hear everyone in the room, and Vaggie sat right next to her as to play referee.

Husk and Angel sat in their chosen seats. Lewis fluttered off the ground and over to his seat, stretching his wings out afterward. The 'group' was a little lackluster, as Husk was the only one aside from Angel and Lew that came to attend, bribed via alcohol.

"Alright, let's get this over with. I don't much care for talking about my 'feelings'," Lew said, adding air quotes on the last word.

"And I just don't want to be here," Husk added, taking a swig from a bottle of whiskey.

"Come on, it won't be that bad. We just want to get to know you better." Charlie smiled happily from ear to ear. Charlie's kindness was both calming and disconcerting to Lew. It was a nice change of pace, but it was Hell: anyone this nice was most likely fucking with you.

"Fine," Lew growled, grabbing one of his front legs with his wing hand, and looking the opposite direction of Charlie, "let's just get this over with."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't really wanna hear about your feelings either," Angel added, looking the other way apathetically.

"You're not helping." Lew folded back his ears and glared at him.

"Not trying to." Angel looked at Lew with a shit eating grin.

"Hey!" Vaggie clapped with a glare to get their attention. "Let's stay focused."

"Alright," Charlie sighed. "Okay, first question: can I ask why you're in Hell?"

"Cause I was bad," Lew said matter-of-factly.

Charlie rolled her eyes playfully, "Well yeah, but what did you do that was bad?"

"Armed robbery...s." Lew scratched behind his ear nervously with his back foot.

"I'm sorry, was that more than one?" Charlie said cocking her head at him curiously.

Lew took in a deep breath before quickly flicking up his head and staring at Charlie with a glare directly in the eye. He held his gaze for a few seconds before she began to grow uncomfortable. Lew took a deep breath. He could see the innocence in her eyes.

"More than one." He said calmly.

"Okay... If you're willing, is it okay if you told us why you did them?"

Lew breathed deeply. "I was providing for someone. A uh… A child. She was just six or so years of age. She was my daughter."

"Oh, wow... And when did you die?" Charlie cocked her head at him with a sympathetic expression.

"Tuesday, January 18th, 2018, ten PM."

"Wow," Charlie throwing her eyebrows up a little in response, "That's very specific… and recent."

"Mhm," Lew replied, closing his eyes in memory, "I was… keeping an eye on the time. That day… that was our biggest heist yet."

"Our. Who were you with?" Charlie asked calmly.

"There were three of us. Me, a woman, and a man. We were robbers on the regular, but this time… this time we were robbing one of the biggest banks in the US."

"Yeah." Charlie leaned in, more curious now. That face; Lew couldn't tell whether to smile or cry.

"I'll spare you the details." Lew quickly swiped his head to the side, glaring into the distance with his ears pulled back. "We came out, we were caught, we were shot. The end," Tears rolled down Lew's face as he growled his last words.

"You okay Lewey?" Charlie asked in concern.

Lewis squeezed his eyes shut, and didn't respond. He couldn't bring himself to. The way she acted, the way she cared; it was all to familiar.

Charlie was extremely concerned now; she had never had to deal with a reaction like this before. After all, Angel skimped out on details when he told her how he died; he even casually laughed it off, as if he was pleased with himself. She had never seen any demon, aside from Vaggie that is, show regret, or sadness in the slightest. "Uhm… we can take a break if you need to."

Immediately after hearing those words, Lew threw his chair to the side and flew thru the door. He wasn't thinking. All he knew was that he wanted to run; he wanted to run as far away as he could. He immediately ran toward the doors of the hotel and burst thru them, taking to the sky, and soaring off.

"Wait!" Charlie panted, as she ran thru the front doors of the hotel Vaggie and Angel tailing behind, "Wait…"

Charlie was beginning to cry at this point. Vaggie put a hand on her shoulder. Upon her doing so, Charlie flipped around and hugged her, burying her head into Vaggie's shoulder.

"I just wanted to help him…" She sobbed, her voice muffled by Vaggie's shoulder, "Why did he run away?"

"I'm sure he'll come back," Vaggie said, stroking Charlie's back in an attempt to calm her down, "I'm sure he will."


	4. The Branch Chapter 3: Drunk

Lewis had flown as far as he could from the hotel. He found himself a perch on a tall skyscraper in the Northern side of the pentagram. He had sobbed himself out, and was now drinking from his flask, thinking. He stared out at the city in front of him. After a little while, he heard the sound of beating wings, and the sound of a light body daintily landing behind him.

"Susan?" He didn't even look behind him.

"You know, I'm never gonna get used to that weird fuckin' super scent you have their." She responded, quickly hopping over to sit down beside him. "What's up."

Lew hesitantly glanced up at her quickly, before taking a long swig from his flask. "Nothing." He responded flatly. Unfortunately Susan had the chance to notice the tear marks on his face.

"Have you been… crying?" She asked curiously, gently grabbing him by his chin and guiding his head up to look her in the eye.

"How would you know?" Lew gently moved her hands off his chin and pushed them back to her.

"Your fur preserves tears well," she said matter of factly.

"So what if I was?" Lew responded, somewhat aggressively.

"Nothing! It's just that- what… what's wrong?" She looked at him with concern in her eyes.

Lew smirked sadly, looked away from her, and went back to staring straight ahead. "I ain't drunk enough to talk about that yet."

Susan giggled slightly at his response. "I'm pretty sure if I get you drunk enough for an actual answer, you'll just end up forgetting why you were upset."

The two both chuckled.

Lew thru his flask back and chugged the whole thing, as Sue just stared in awe. He put it back into his jacket and coughed.

"Jesus, you drunk enough yet?" Susan looked at him nervously.

"Nah," he responded, grimacing as he rode thru the disgusting taste of the alcohol, "To be fair I don't really want to talk about it period."

"You sure?" Sue looked at him concerned.

"Yes, I think so."

"Okay." Susan adjusted her seating position to let her legs dangle off the building. "It's a kinda nice view; you know, despite it being Hell and all."

"Yes," Lew replied, scanning the distance, "Yes, I suppose it is."

Sue put her hand on his shoulder. "You know, if you ever need somebody to talk to, I'm always here."

"Sure," Lewis replied matter of factly. It was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not. Susan slit her eyes, looking at him suspiciously.

"'Kay." Sue looked off into the distance. "You wanna be left alone?"

"Yeah I… I think so." He replied.

"Okay." Sue stood up, looking back at him with concern. "I'll see you later then."

"Ditto."

Sue spread her wings, and took a small hop off the side of the building, banking up just before hitting the ground. Lew smiled at her as she flew off. Unfortunately for him, the alcohol was beginning to kick in.

"Was I supposed to be somewhere," Lew mumbled to himself, drooling as he stared into space. It then dawned on him that he had bailed out of the Happy Hotel like an hour and a half ago; they probably had some sort of concern for we're in the Hell he was. Lewis tried to recollect why he even bailed in the first place, but just as Sue had foreseen, he was too drunk to remember. It was then that he decided it was time to go back. Unfortunately, now he was too drunk to fly right, and instead of majestically leaping off the side with his full body length, taking into the air like a Pegasus, he stumbled off the roof, falling clumsily, before managing to save himself by desperately flapping his wings like an intoxicated pigeon. With poor coordination, Lew clumsily fluttered thru the air in the general direction of the hotel.

…

"Charlie?" Vaggie whispered softly to her girlfriend, leaning thru the doorway. Charlie was in the two of them's room, face planted on their mattress.

"What," she groaned, muffled by the mattress.

"Uhm… you okay?"

"Do I look okay," Charlie mumbled, turning her head off the bed to face Vaggie without moving the rest of her body. Her face was covered with tear marks, and her eyes were reddened.

Vaggie walked over to her and sat next to her on the bed, looking back and stroking the side of Charlie's cheek. "I'm sorry Charlie."

Charlie sat up from the bed, before quickly laying back down again, this time on top of Vaggie's lap.

"Don't be," she said flatly, looking up at Vaggie, "You didn't do anything."

Vaggie slowly rubbed Charlie's hair. "I know, I mean- you know, about the whole Lewis thing."

Charlie sighed. "He was the first person to come here who actually wanted to be redeemed." She cuddle up closer to Vaggie's stomach. "And I chased him away."

"Don't beat yourself up. You didn't chase him away. He was just… sensitive, is all," Vaggie responded, attempting to soothe Charlie's self pitying.

"Maybe…" Charlie pulled her legs up to her chin and curled into a ball, "But… but what if he was the only one who was interested."

"Alright, don't be crazy. I'm sure that's not true." Vaggie said calmly to her, brushing a piece of hair from her eyes.

"How can you be sure though?" Charlie looked up at her with sad eyes.

"There are literally infinite sinners!" She exclaimed, "Somebody probably just died now! Besides, most people aren't fantastic, so he probably wound up down here. With all of these people… some have to want redemption. And I'm sure those people will come here, and we can help them."

Charlie took a deep breath. "Yeah, I guess so…" Vaggie leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. Just then, a loud thump came from outside of the front of the hotel. Charlie immediately launched up from Vaggie's lap, accidentally slamming her in the jaw.

"Mierda!" Vaggie shouted, rubbing her bruised chin.

"Oh god! Sorry!"

"It's fine." Vaggie continued to rub her chin. "Just go check the door."

As Charlie opened the front door, there he was: Lewis, laying on his back on the doorstep, rubbing his forehead.

"Ding, ding, ding! Good morning!"

"Lewey!" Charlie ran over to him on the ground and hugged him. She could smell alcohol on his breath. She pulled away from the hug, and held her hands on his shoulders. "Have you been drinking?" Instead of a response, Lew simply reach out with his wing hands, grabbed her cheeks, and began to play with them.

"What are you doing?" Charlie replied with a confused expression.

"Hmm," Lew began, continuing to squish Charlie's cheeks, "You're cheeks have the same consistency as cinnamon rolls."

"You're drunk aren't you?" Charlie responded, slowly moving Lew's hands off of her cheeks.

"Oh yeah, totally! Otherwise I wouldn't have let you hug me!" He responded, patting her on the head. "Oh, could you wait here a minute? I need to go throw up violently." He said, stumbling to the side of the porch.

"Um-" Charlie tried to respond, cut off by the disturbing sound of Lew's vomiting. Vaggie walked up behind Charlie, peering out the door.

"Who is- oh son of a bitch!" She shouted, as she observed Lew's explosive puking. After a couple seconds he finished, stumbling a bit, before he collapsed unconscious on the step.


	5. The Branch Chapter 4: Never

* * *

Fuck his head hurt. Lewis slowly rolled over with a groan. Wait- he was in a bed? He was back in the hotel. The bloody Hell happened last night? Lewis rolled over in the bed. On the ground, next to said bed, was a plastic bucket full of vomit. Fun. He slowly rolled off the bed and fell onto the ground, luckily not into the bucket. He groaned; his head hurt. He slowly slunk toward the door, blindly reaching with one of his wing hands for the doorknob. He slowly shoved the door open, and stumbled out of his room, shaking his whole body off like a dog.

"Good morning Lewey!" Charlie's voice echoed from downstairs.

"Ugh!" He groaned tiredly, stumbling toward the stairs, falling down each and every one, till eventually slapping back first on the ground.

"Um… you okay?" Charlie sat at the dining table, smiling sheepishly at the dog on the floor. Said dog slowly turned his head toward her and glared.

"No."

"Oh." Charlie gave him a concerned expression as he just continued to lay on the ground. "Do- do you need any help?"

"No." Lew roughly flipped upright, prying himself off the ground. The hotel guests and faculty were already halfway done with breakfast. Lew stumbled toward a chair, bumping into it with his nose before finding a way to crawl onto said chair. He attempted regaining his composure. He turned to Charlie.

"What- uh…. what happened last night?"

Charlie hesitated for a second before turning to him. "Well… you came back to the hotel-"

"Yes."

"-you… you squeezed my cheeks-" Charlie continued, a blank expression crossing her face.

Vaggie choked on a piece of egg. "Que!?"

"Then you violently vomited for a few minutes-" Charlie continued, "-then me and Vaggie put you to bed."

"I see…" Lewis stared deadpan into space for a few seconds. "My apologies."

"Can we go back in that conversation a fucking minute?" Vaggie exclaimed, looking at the two with an expression of utter confusion.

"Not important." Charlie stared at her blankly.

Vaggie looked straight ahead, glancing back at Charlie occasionally, slowly eating her breakfast.

"It's good that you came back," Charlie said, a smile restoring to her face.

"Yes," Lew responded, "And I'm sorry for being two hours late."

"Thanks." Charlie smiled at him. Lew simply gave a smile and a quick nod in response.

"You're a bit 'nice' to be in Hell," Vaggie said, squinting at him suspiciously.

"I've told you: I robbed a few banks," Lew responded, "I'm only nice to Charlie cause she's nice to me, and you because you're dating her." Lew leaned in toward the two of them. "Honestly, I couldn't be bothered to give a crap about that spider motherfucker over there." He gestured to Angel subtly.

"Hey! Angel may be a bit… strange. But down inside him, I know he has something good."

Lew looked at Angel suspiciously, "Yeah; he has something else 'down inside' him too."

Charlie wrinkled her nose. "That's gross…"

Lew chuckled a bit, "Hey, tell me I'm wrong." Lew straightened himself out. "Seriously though, I can tell he has something good: I can smell it."

Vaggie lifted an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "Smell it? What the Hell does that even mean?"

"I look like a dog, I can smell like one; as it turns out, dogs can learn a lot about people just thru smell." He took a quick sniff of the air. "Here's an example: Charlie, you may want to start taking some cold medicine."

"Cold medicine?" Charlie cocked her head at him, "Why?"

"Why does anyone take cold medicine; you have a cold genius."

"But I don't feel sick…"

"It takes time for illness to develop in the body; I can detect it before it even happens." Lew smiled smugly. "Another example: Angel has… more STDs than you'd like to-"

"Okay, shut up!" Vaggie cut off, "We get it; you know everything we're thinking, doing, eating, feeling, shitting! Just stop!"

"Alright." Lewis leaned back in his seat blankly.

"Lewis," Charlie asked, leaning toward him with an anxious look. "I- I know you… may not want to talk about it, and I know you're… sensitive-"

Lew raised an eyebrow at her.

"-B-but… later today, I'd like to talk about what happened yesterday." Charlie looked at him nervously, as if she expected him to snap at any moment. He hated that face; that face she gave him.

"We," Lewis retorted, "Will NEVER, speak of what happened yesterday." He glared at her.

"What? I just-" Charlie tried to get out before Lewis cut her off.

"Nope." He slowly turned his head away from her, "Now," he continued happily as if nothing ever happened, "Where's my breakfast."


	6. The Branch Chapter 5: Surprise

Lewis, Husk, and Angel were playing a game of poker at the dining table of the Hotel; not much had been happening that day, but Charlie claimed she "had something big planned" and was continuing to putter about the hotel, everywhere she went, an adorably enthusiastic smile on her face.

"Read 'em and weep boys!" Husk spread his cards across the table. "Straight flush!"

Angel sadly spread his cards on the table; two of a kind. Lewis did nothing; he had already folded.

Seeing Angel's cards, Husk gave him a shit eating grin as he slowly slid the pot toward himself. As he slid the money, it was scooped away from him by a passing Charlie.

"Hey! What the fuck!"

"No gambling!" Charlie sangsonged as she fast-walked away.

Angel smiled at Husk, attempting to stifle his laughter.

"Oh shut up," Husk grumbled, "Besides that was you're money too."

"To be fair, we weren't getting it back anyway." Lewis smiled at him sarcastically, "So it's nice Charlie won instead of you."

Husk got up from his seat and slowly hobbled off toward the bar. "I need a drink."

"Don't you always," Lewis said jokingly.

Husk slowly nodded his head. "Yeah," He said matter-of-factly.

Lewis pulled back his ears and frowned. "You just drain the fun out of everything."

Husk nodded again. "Yep," he said matter-of-factly once more.

Lewis sighed. "Well," Lewis began, "If you don't mind me, there's something I need to do."

"What's that mange pup?" Angel asked with a smug smirk on his face.

"Well, spider whore," Lew began, "I've decided to stay at this place full time, so my first order of business is to grab all my stuff and yank it over here."

"Great," Angel groaned, "Now I have to deal with you existing twenty-four-seven."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not looking forward toward it either." Lew pushed himself out of his chair, and quickly flew up over the banister to his room. He grabbed his cap, coat, and phone, before reappearing from his room, and gliding all the way down from the banister to the front door of the hotel. He slammed the door behind him as he left.

…

Two hours Later: Charlie could hear a loud pounding from the front door. She would've gotten the thing, but she was busy with something of her own in the kitchen.

"Vaggie!" She shouted, struggling to juggle a whole goose.

"Yeah!" Vaggie shouted back from the waiting room.

"Could you get that!"

"Sure!"

As Vaggie opened the front door, there stood Lewis: there stood Lewis, with a gigantic, swollen sack.

"Hell- guau!" Vaggie exclaimed with shock on her face as she gazed upon the bulbous object. "Mierda!"

"Um… hola." Lew responded in confusion. He turned around and grabbed the top of the bag with his mouth, attempting to drag it into the hotel. "Can you get out of the way?" He mumbled thru gritted teeth.

Vaggie slowly stepped out of the way, still staring in shock.

As Lew attempted to pull the bag thru the door, there was a problem; it got stuck. The bag was miraculously wider than the double door.

"Well fuck…" Lew grumbled, staring at the massive gathering of objects; like a puffer fish stuck in a grouper's mouth.

"Hey Vaggie, could you try and climb over that thing, and push it from the other side?"

"Estas loco?! I can't climb over that!" Vaggie gestured at the inflated puffer fish of a bag emphatically.

"Oh, sure you can!" Lew waved a hand thru the air dismissively at her. Vaggie glared at him.

"Hey Charlie!?" Vaggie shouted to the other room without breaking eye contact with Lew.

"Um… I'm kinda busy right now!" Charlie's echos came from the hallway.

"Yeah, but I kinda need your help!"

"No… I really can't come; I have a twenty pound bird in my hands right now."

"What!" Vaggie responded, flicking her head toward the kitchen with a dumbfounded expression.

"I said: I have a twenty! Pound! BIRD in my hands!" Charlie reiterated, heaving as she presumably lifted said bird. Vaggie looked at Lewis, then the kitchen, then Lewis again.

"Hey Nifty!" Vaggie shouted.

"Yes!" A high pitched, female shout responded.

"Could you go help out Charlie please!?"

"What!?"

"COULD YOU GO HELP OUT CHARLIE PLEASE!" Vaggie shouted down the corridor, her face turning red as she began to lose her patients.

"Oh! Wait!" Lew chuckled, "I can just fly over to the other side, and you can pull." He playfully knocked on his head, "Jesus! Duh!"

Vaggie slowly turned her head to Lew with a blood boiling glare. "Get over to the other side of that bag before I fucking throw you there."

Lew gulped, before slowly gliding over the top of the bag. He didn't even push before the bag before it had already been pulled in by Vaggie, her strength likely fueled by her fuming rage.

Vaggie didn't say a word, glaring at him as she headed for the kitchen.

"Charlie!" Vaggie shouted scoldingly.

"Nothing!" Charlie shouted in response, desperately fumbling to shove the massive bird she had into the oven.

"Charlie, why- wait, what?" Vaggie stopped, crossing her arms and lifting an eyebrow in confusion.

"Nothing." Charlie smiled sheepishly. "I said nothing."

"I noticed." Vaggie eyed her suspiciously. "Why are you wearing an apron? And why are your hands covered in… well… stuff."

Charlie looked down at her hands. Surely enough, they were covered in oil and seasonings. She slowly slid them behind her back. "No reason."

Vaggie glared at her.

"Charlie, what are you doing?"

"Cooking." She continued to look horribly guilty.

"Charlie."

"Vaggie," Charlie whined, "it's a surprise!"

"A surprise for what?" Vaggie continued to carry her suspicion.

"Surprise," Charlie reiterated, gently escorting Vaggie out of the kitchen.

Once Charlie finished her escort she quickly dashed back into the kitchen.

"Whatever," Vaggie responded, "as long as you don't burn the hotel down." She quickly made a double take. "Wait, didn't you say something about a bird-"

"SURPRISE!" Charlie cut off sternly.

"Fine," Vaggie sighed, shaking her head as she headed back for the waiting room. She was greeted by the unwelcoming sight of Lewis attempting, and failing, to shove his massive bag of stuff up the stairwell.

"Vaggie help!" He grunted thru his teeth as he shoved the bag.

Vaggie pinched the bridge of her nose. "Hijo de perra…"


	7. The Branch Chapter 6: Christmas

Another day had passed, and Lew had finished moving in. All of the stuff from his dusty old house had been moved into the hotel and was set up accordingly. That being said, most of the things he owned, he no longer needed. Yet he still felt the need to bring his old couch; boy did Vaggie have a fun time 'helping' him hall it back down stairs again, and to the curb.

That night, both Charlie and Vaggie collapsed in bed from exhaustion. Vaggie from yanking shit up and down the stairs all day, Charlie from various things, including but not limited to wrestling the carcass of a giant waterfowl.

Charlie was planning something, and she had been for a few months now. Christmas; she had heard about it, but, as you can imagine, a holiday about cheer and 'family' didn't get much notoriety in Hell. But Charlie LOVED the idea. So much so she had spent the past three months preparing shit. And now, with all the new faces in the hotel, Charlie could really have fun with the idea.

She had assembled a knowledge of Christmas based off a hodgepodge of material. Books, music, TV specials, and, of course, occasionally Vaggie would tell Charlie about her experiences with the holiday. She hadn't celebrated since she was a kid; back when she was alive. She spoke fondly of it, and Charlie was doing this more for her than anyone else. Though, it was also a suitable excuse to try and teach some redemption morals to the hotel guests.

Yesterday was Christmas Eve, the last day before Christmas, and the last day Charlie had to prepare. She spent the day preparing food; goose takes upsettingly longer to cook than you would think it should.

Charlie's plan was simple: wake up at twelve AM, set up the Christmas tree, get everyone's presents, set up the goose to cook, and hope that the shitload of caffeinated drinks she had set aside would satisfy her lack of rest!

…

Charlie slowly peeled her eyes open. She felt horribly groggy. She slowly wiggled herself into such a position as so she could see the clock. It was already five in the morning. The grogginess immediately flew away as she quietly slunk out from under the sheets, being careful not to stir the sleeping Vaggie.

She didn't even get dressed before she quietly tiptoed to the door. She slowly began to open it. As the hinge squeaked, Charlie glared at it venomously. Not wanting to risk making any other noise to stir Vaggie, she slowly slid out thru the small gap of doorway she had opened to herself. It was at times like this that she was happy she was thinner than a toothpick.

Charlie continued to slowly tiptoe toward a walk in closet in the lobby. She slowly opened the door, and pulled a surprisingly decent sized, 'tree' from the closet. As you can imagine, pines don't grow in Hell. Instead, it was the Hell equivalent. Now, imagine a regular pine tree, except red, and with a couple dozen eyes protruding out of its trunk. This, "Hell pine," tree was already decorated with Charlie's own makeshift ornaments; Husk's old alcohol bottles, after all, made lovely decor once spiffed up a bit.

Charlie, was not a girl of much musculature. As such, strength was not a particular strong suit of her's. She managed to pull enough strength out of her ass to yank the tree from the closet, but her body failed her when she tried to catch the falling tree, she squealed as it effortlessly crushed her with a loud thud.

…

Lew's eyes fluttered open, and he craned his neck up from his bed and toward the door. Being a canid, he had a very refined sense of hearing. He heard everything, from Charlie's pathetic squealing, to the massive thud of the tree on the ground. He quickly flung himself off his bed, grabbing his cap, and haphazardly slapping it onto his head. He quickly opened the door, flapping his wings, and fluttering over the banister. He froze in the air and hovered for a moment with a deadpan face.

Charlie froze like a deer in headlights. "It's not what it looks like."

Lewis squinted his eyes. "Charlie... what does it look like?"

Charlie attempted to crane her neck out from under the tree to analyze the situation. "I don't know, but whatever it does it's not that." She smiled at him sheepishly.

"You uh… you need some help?" Lew replied, slowly descending to the ground.

"No I'm fine thanks!" Charlie chirped happily, a bead of sweat dripping down her face.

"Uh huh…"

Lewis was usually up about now anyway, so he slowly stepped around Charlie and the tree, heading to the coffeemaker.

Charlie groaned and grunted as she slowly yanked herself out from beneath the tree, multiple needles firmly stuck in her pajamas and skin.

"Ow…" she plucked a needle out of her rear.

"May I query why you brought a hell pine into the hotel."

Charlie yanked out another needle, this one from her face. "No you may not."

Lew smiled sarcastically. "Right."

He gave up on making coffee, and instead flew back to his room swiftly, grabbing his coat, before gliding back down toward the front doors. "I'm going to Starbucks."

Charlie yanked yet another needle from her flesh. "There's a Starbucks in the Pentagram now?"

"Well yes, except there's only black coffee, and it's all priced as if it was lattes."

"Yikes." Charlie responded, getting up and brushing the leftover needles from her PJs.

"Yes. Well, I'm off," Lew responded, opening the door. "Whatever the hell it is that you're doing, just don't burn anything down." He shut the door behind him.

Charlie let out a relieved breath that he was the only one who was awakened by her ruckus. Charlie dragged the tree all the way to the corner of the Dining room, where she set the thing up, and let out a harsh sigh, before quickly perking up: now was the fun part. Charlie quickly dashed around the hotel. She had hidden presents everywhere: in the air vents, the bathrooms, the closets, the droors. Everywhere. She came back to the tree with a present for everyone in the hotel.

She slapped the stack of beautifully wrapped gifts on the ground, sliding each one under the tree. She stepped back from the tree, admiring her handy work. Then it was onto the next order of business.

She snuck back into her and Vaggie's room, grabbing a pair of pants, as well as something she had hid in their air vent: two makeshift Christmas sweaters, one for her, and one for Vaggie. Her's was green, with a red tree in the center of it. The words "Merry Christmas" were stitched into the front of it with black thread. Vaggie's was red with a green tree in the center, the same phrase sewn onto its bosom. She had knitted and sewn them both herself. She put her's on, as well as a pair of jeans, setting Vaggie's sweater atop the dresser, before rushing onto the next task: food.

She quickly ran into the kitchen, and dropped flat onto the ground, stretching her arm beneath the oven, and pulling out a thick cookbook. She heaved it onto the counter, flipping thru the pages until she found what she was looking for. She checked the time for the roast, set a timer accordingly, and started the oven.

Little did Charlie know, that as she was doing this, she was being watched the whole time; Alastor had seen everything. He was awake almost always anyway, constantly scoping out for a way to cock the hotel over. You know… for entertainment purposes. He thoughtfully rubbed his hands together, sliding into the shadows, and teleporting to his room. He chuckled to himself, walking over to his nightstand, and knocking on one of its drawers.

"Nifty dear! Wakey wakey!" He chimed upsettingly cheerily.

"GOOD MORNING!" Nifty sprang out of the drawer, and Alastor slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Quiet now my dear!"

"Ohhhhh! Okay." Nifty smiled happily.

"Do you know what day it is?" Alastor sat on the bed, drumming his fingers on his lap.

"No, I don't have a calendar."

"It's Christmas," Alastor said flatly, one of his eyes twitching.

"Oh my gosh really! IT'S CHRIST-" Nifty jumped out of the drawer excitedly, before Alastor grabbed her and covered her mouth again, setting her on his lap.

"Quiet!"

"Sorry!" Nifty smiled at him, embarrassed. Alastor sighed.

"It's… fine," Alastor replied, maintaining his persistent smile, "Listen, this is a big problem!"

"Why? Christmas is-"

"Annoying," Alastor cut in. "But, Charlie seems really excited about it, and of course you know what that means!"

"Of course! And that is..." Nifty's expression intensified as she tried to figure out Alastor's intentions.

"That is," Alastor continued his smile becoming more and more devilish, "we get to have the wonderful pleasure of tearing it apart for her!"

"Oh... Of course." Nifty smiled.

"Now then! It's time to execute my plan of action!"

…

"Vaggie," a soothing voice whispered flirtatiously into Vaggie's left ear: Charlie.

"Mggh," Vaggie mumbled, smiling, and slowly turning over to face her girlfriend. As she opened her eye, she raised one of her eyebrows in slight confusion at Charlie's attire. "Where in Hell did you get that?" She whispered, somewhat irritated.

"Merry Christmas!" Charlie piped excitedly.

"Wha-"

"Come on, I'll show you!" Charlie proceeded to yank Vaggie up from bed by the wrist.

"Charlie, I'm not even wearing anything!"

Charlie froze, not breaking eye contact with Vaggie's naked body, blushing as she grabbed Vaggie's sweater off the dresser, slowly passing it into her hands.

"You, uh… you having fun there?" Vaggie raised an eyebrow at her in response to her gawking.

"What? Oh! Sorry!" Charlie quickly shook off her head, looking away.

"Don't worry about it! You act like it's your first time." Vaggie brushed her with her shoulder, smiling flirtatiously.

"Heh." Charlie's blush grew brighter.

"God you're weird," Vaggie smiled jokingly.

After she had gotten dressed, Charlie smiled at her appearance in her sweater. She was wearing her usual gray dress, and she had simply slipped the loose fitting sweater over it. After finishing enjoying Charlie's excitement, Vaggie glanced at the clock.

"Holy shit! It's already eight!" She exclaimed.

"I know! Sorry, I turned off our alarm so I could surprise you." Charlie's blush returned, this time in embarrassment.

"Is anyone else up?!" Vaggie exclaimed.

"Lewis is: he went out to Starbucks," Charlie replied.

"Wait, their's a Starbucks in the Pentagram now?" Vaggie gave Charlie a confused expression.

"Yeah, but it's just as expensive and they only have black coffee."

"Oh." Vaggie frowned, before shaking it off. "Whatever. So, you want to show me what you've been up to?"

Charlie perked up with excitement. "Yes!" She grabbed Vaggie by the wrist and dragged her along to the waiting room.

"Tadah!" She thru her arms fourth emphatically at the modest Christmas tree she had set up.

"Wow!" Vaggie stared in awe. Charlie swore she could see a twinkle of childlike joy in her eye.

"Sooooo: what do you think?" Charlie chimed, looking at her expectantly.

"We're celebrating Christmas?!" Vaggie chimed excitedly; there was that twinkle again.

"Yes!" Charlie chimed.

Vaggie giggled giddily, wrapping her arms around Charlie's neck; Charlie hugged her back.

"Oh my god!" She smiled enthusiastically. "How long did this take you to set up?"

"A couple months." Charlie smiled with pride.

"How did you hide this all?!"

Charlie's facial expression changed to one of trauma; like a soldier having flashbacks to Vietnam. "Very painfully..." Charlie went out for a few seconds before Vaggie waved a hand in front of her eyes, snapping her out of the trance. She shook herself off. "Sorry."

"That's fine." Vaggie hugged Charlie once again. "Merry Christmas."

Responding in kind, Charlie hugged Vaggie once more as well. "Merry Christmas Vag."

…

An hour or so later, Lewis entered the hotel. "Fuck me…" He thru an empty Starbucks cup into a nearby bin. "I've never waited so long for a cup of shitty, watery ass coffee."

He looked up at the tree standing in the middle of the waiting room.

"What the Hell?"

"I'm gonna go wake everybody else," Lew heard Charlie's voice as she came thru the corner.

"Oh! Hey Lewey!" She waved enthusiastically.

Lew squinted and cocked his head as he saw her attire. "What are you wearing?"

"Merry Christmas!" Charlie cheered in response, Continuing on her way to the other guests rooms.

"What?" Lew peeped, tracking her with his head, the same confused grimace on his face.

"Charlie heard about Christmas, so now we're celebrating it," Vaggie stated matter-of-factly, as she came out from around the corner. Lew stared at her blankly.

"God damnit, are you gonna be the first to shit all over it?" Vaggie groaned, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

"What? N- No! I just," He looked down at his paws, "it's uh… it's been awhile." He looked up from his paws, a smile beginning to form on his face. "But yes… yes I'd like to."

"Wait- really?" Vaggie looked almost astounded at his response.

"Yeah," he replied, "Yeah sure. I uh. I used to celebrate it with..." Lew shook his head, "Yeah," he reiterated.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" The ear splitting cheer came from Angel's room; Charlie.

Charlie skipped happily out of Angel's bedroom. Angel followed her from behind.

"Son of a bitch!" He was still in his pajamas, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "The fuck are you talken' about!"

"It's Christmas silly!" Charlie smiled giddily. Angel pinched his nose. Charlie exaggeratedly frowned at him. "Do you not like Christmas."

"I don't 'not like' Christmas," Angel said exhaustedly, using air quotes to emphasize the words 'not like', "What I don't like is being screamed at while I'm still fuckin' half asleep!" He sighed, "at least it's an excuse ta wear my slutty Santa suit."

"No!" Charlie glared at him. "No slutty Santa!"

Angel raised an eyebrow. "Slutty elf?"

"No." Charlie continued her stern glare.

"Well then what's even the god damn point!"

"The point," Charlie said, still maintaining her glare, "is bonding, caring, food, and wholesomeness!"

"Ugh," Angel groaned, walking past her and toward the coffee maker. As he did so, Husk straggled off the floor of the bar, sticking his head over it, rubbing his forehead.

He groaned. "Ugh… Fuckin' hang over."

"Merry Christmas Husk!" Charlie chimed, an ear to ear smile spread across her face.

"Son of a bitch!" Husk slammed his face on the table. "We're doing that now?!"

"Yes Husk we're doing that." Charlie frowned at him. "Does anyone care about Christmas!" Charlie cried out to the room.

Lew glanced at Vaggie, then looked toward Charlie, "Ya got us." He smiled, wagging his tail.

Charlie smiled. "We'll get them into it."

Lew looked past Charlie. Angel was beating his head quietly on the fridge, while Husk chugged a bottle of whiskey. "You sure about that?"

"We have to!" Charlie looked into the corner of her eye sheepishly. "We need them to eat the goose…"

…

There was no star on the tree. No, Charlie had saved it for Vaggie, who she was helping just then, hoisting her upon her shoulders to help her reach the top of the tree. And Alastor saw this as his first opportunity. He subtly lifted one of his hands, using a bit of telekinetic power to yank Charlie's foot off balance.

"You almost got it Vag-GAG!" Charlie slipped over, falling back first on the ground, Vaggie falling ass first onto Charlie's face. The star fell on the ground and shattered.

"Mph," Charlie mumbled from beneath Vaggie. Alastor appeared above the two of them.

"Am I interrupting something?!" He asked cheerily. Vaggie quickly sprang off Charlie's face, glaring venomously at Alastor, before noticing the broken star in the corner of her eye. She looked at it sadly.

"Shit…" she mumbled.

Charlie slowly rolled over, and saw the star as well. "Rats…"

Vaggie whipped her head back to Alastor, glaring at him once more. "You had something to do with this didn't you?"

"Oh my dear," Alastor chuckled, "What could I possibly derive from destroying a cheesy little Christmas ornament! No! This would seem to have been Charlie's fault! Speaking of whom-" he turned toward Charlie. "-may I ask what you're doing?"

"We were going to put the star on the tree before I fell on my ass." Charlie mumbled to herself sadly.

"Don't beat yourself up kiddo," Lewis said, looking down at her from upon the banister.

"Yeah…" Charlie got up off the ground, "We don't need the star anyway... I just thought it would be fun." Charlie perked up again. "Oh! Presents!" Charlie pulled the multitude of wrapped boxes from under the tree. Angel immediately perked up in the corner of the room.

"Presents?!" Angel chirped, dashing over to the tree with a cup of coffee, "Nobody said there'd be presents! Did you get me one?!"

"That's one way to get into the Christmas spirit." Lew mumbled grumpily, gliding down from the banister to the ground.

Alastor's left eye twitched slightly in irritation; his plan had failed. He slowly slunk back into the shadows to rethink his strategy.

"Here you go Angel." Charlie passed the aforementioned spider demon a relatively large present with white wrapping, and pink stripes all along the paper, as well as a light pink bow.

Angel grabbed the box excitedly. He shook it against his head; it barely made a noise. He wiggled his fingers excitedly, quickly ripping the paper off of the box. He was pissed by what he saw.

"The fuck is this?!" Inside of the box were a multitude of condoms. Every brand Hell had to offer. Angel glared at Charlie. She gulped and smiled at him embarrassed.

Charlie gulped and smiled at him embarrassed. "If you're gonna do it… you know… do it safe…"

"Hey, at least you ain't forbidden me 'it'." Angel said flatly.

"Husk!" Charlie singsonged, sliding over to 'his' bar.

"What?" Husk groaned, leaning on his elbow on the bar. Charlie slowly slid a mid sized black gift wrapped in black paper with red stripes, and a red bow. Husk snatched the box from her, apathetically removing the wrapping.

"Huh." Husk's eyebrows raised as he gazed upon the gift that was within the wrapping: a bottle of a particularly pricey whiskey. "The fuck is this?"

"What?" Charlie peeped as her happy smile turned upside down, "Do you not like it?"

"No, no… I-um, I like it." Husk furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Oh come on! Why does he get cool shit and I get these fuckin' rubber dick socks!" Angel whined, flailing a condom in the air.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Charlie hollered happily, drowning out Angel Dust's complaints.

"Charlie, could you come over here for a second?" Vaggie asked, gesturing to Charlie. Charlie could see the twitch of her eyebrow: she was in trouble.

"Charlie, why did you-" Vaggie attempted to scold Charlie about her questionable gift to Husk, but was silenced by Charlie putting a finger on her lip.

"Wait for it…" Charlie smiled with excitement as Husk began to pull open the whiskey bottle. POP! It was: nothing…

"The fuck? It's fuckin' empty!" Husky growled. He turned over the bottle, shaking it to try and empty any possible contents out. There was, indeed, something in the bottle, though not what he expected. Out of the bottle came a tiny, folded piece of paper. Husk opened it and read it within his head: "Drinking is bad for you - Love Charlie"

Husk stared straight ahead with a dead expression

Husk almost, almost mind you, stood up to give the audacious brat the business, but instead just slammed his head on the bar.

"And Lewey," Charlie began, bringing over a small cylindrical package to Lewis, who was lying on the ground in a dog like posture, "this one's for you!"

Lew suspiciously grabbed the package from her. He shook it against his ear. He bent the package toward Charlie and popped it open. A colorful plastic 'snake' shot out of the can and bopped Charlie in the face. She jumped back in shock.

"Snake in a can? Really?" Lew glared at Charlie disapprovingly. "That's some pretty low hanging fruit."

"I'm sorry!" Charlie piped, covering her face in embarrassment.

"Good, the joke was bad and you should feel bad," Lew said nonchalantly, holding the can to his nose and sniffing it.

"Hey!" Vaggie scolded, scowling at Lew. Lew looked at her as if he felt wrongly accused.

"What?" He asked flatly, cocking his head at Vaggie curiously. She scowled harder. Lew glanced back and forth between Vaggie and Charlie, before a look of realization formed on his face.

"Oh of course!" He knocked on his forehead. "Duh! Here's the can Charlie!" He passed Charlie the empty can the 'gift' came in, trotting up the stairs to his room docily. Charlie's embarrassed expression changed to one of blank confusion. Vaggie, meanwhile, just rolled her eyes.

Lew chuckled, somewhat to himself, but still within earshot of Charlie and Vaggie. "Fuckin prank gifts..." He trailed off as he closed his room's door.

The smile faded from Lewis' face. He hopped atop his bed, pulling his photo from his coat.

He stared at it. And he thought. He thought about his family. He thought of Christmas. Then he thought of his family once more, his other family, and he thought of Susan, and her words to him: she would always be there if he needed her. He continued to think. She should be here; she was family… and sure, Sebastian too. Lew curled up on his bed and continued to contemplate.

...

"Lewey?" Charlie knocked on the coyote's door. He quickly unfurled from his position, and stared at the door. Charlie knocked again. "You there?"

"Yes." Lew replied emotionlessly. Maintaining direct eye contact with the door.

"You wanna come down? It's almost dinner time."

Lewis stumbled off his bed, trotting toward the door. He slowly cracked it open. "May I propose a condition?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow at Lewis, "Okay…"

"Can I-" Lew hesitated as he tried to finish his sentence, "-Can I invite… my… my family?"

"You have family in Hell?"

"Yes," Lew continued blankly, "In a manner of speaking."

"Oh… well, then sure!" Charlie smiled at him happily. "It is Christmas after all!"

"Good." Lew swiftly shut the door, Charlie still standing outside.

"You- Uh… you are coming right?" Charlie's voice mumbled thru the door.

"Yeah. I just need to make a call first."

"Oh! Okay."

Lew jumped on his bed, and began to dial Susan's number. Before hitting 'enter' Lew suspiciously turned his head to the door. "You're still there aren't you?"

"Um… No." Charlie's innocent voice came from the other side of the door.

"Bugger off!" Lew shouted thru the piece of wood.

"Okay!" Charlie's shoes could be heard clicking off and away from the other side of the door.

Lew slowly turned his attention away from the door, and hit the 'enter' button

"Heya!" Sue's voice rang loudly thru the phone.

"G'day."

"It's uh… nice that you called."

"Yah I-um-I… well, I have some… stuff to tell you."

"'Kay. What's up?"

Lew gulped, shuffling the covers of his blanket with his paws. "Did you uh… did you see the add for that um… hotel on the news?"

Susan chuckled thru the phone. "You mean the clown chic who performed an elaborate musical on air, while somehow managing to stay on camera the whole time? That was like, three days ago. What about it?"

"Yeah that-" Lew took a double take at Sue's words. "-Wait musical?"

"Yeah," Sue replied with a bit of confusion in her tone, "I thought you had seen it?"

"Oh no, I had… I guess I just... turned it off early. But back to the point… I uh…. I checked it out."

Susan giggled a bit. "Yeah? What's it like?"

"It's uh… fine. I decided to stay awhile."

Sue laughed once more. "Yeah!? Bed's are nice then huh?"

"Yeah, sure." Lew grimaced a bit. "Anyway, we're uh… celebrating Christmas. You know… if you and Sebastian wanted to come over…"

"Christmas?" Susan replied in apparent confusion.

"Yes; we got dinner and shit too. Verdict?" Lew asked matter-of-factly.

"... what's for dinner?"

"Hang on." Lew hopped off the bed and crawled flat on the ground, sticking his nose thru the bottom of the door and sniffing rapidly.

"Goose," he stated matter of factly.

"Sweet! I'm comin'."

"Oh-Kay! Good."

"Yeah! I'll be there in like, twenty minutes."

"Great." Lew said flatly. "Uh… bye!" He hung up quickly before Sue could get out any extra response.

Susan chuckled to herself briefly, as she tucked her phone in her pocket. She laid down on her back upon her couch, dangling her arms off the arm rest and fiddling with her fingers.

Sue lived in a small, studio apartment. It wasn't much; there was a kitchen, and a living room all crammed into the same space. The only other room in the place was the bathroom, and it was…tight, to say the least. There was no space for a bed, so she slept on the couch, but nevertheless, it was a nice place, at least for Hell, and for the fact that the walls, quite literally, had eyes.

Sue groaned as she stretched her body out full length, before slowly sitting up. She thought to herself for a few minutes.

Christmas; it wasn't something she had thought about for at least a couple years, and wasn't something she had celebrated in a long time. She never really had a real family as such, usually sleeping in small apartments, and living off of whatever money she could steal, making a modest living doing so. She was more of a 'single ready to mingle' kind of girl.

If she wanted to go to this party, and she did, at least just for the fact that she'd get a pretty sweet meal out of it, she would need to get a move on. She slowly dismounted the couch, moaning tiredly. She stumbled over to the small closet of her apartment, opening it up, and scanning the small, but high quality collection of clothes within it.

She didn't so much like clothes, or shopping for them, but she did like to look good. Unfortunately, her standard for looking good resulted in, despite its petite size, a collection of clothes that was worth well more than her rent.

She picked out a short, strapless, red dress, smiling at it devilishly. She proceeded to think of what she could do to compliment the dress. It was Christmas, so maybe she could try to be… thematic.

...

It had been over a couple of hours, and Lew was growing concerned. He sat still before the front door, waiting like a dog does for their owner.

"God damnit mutt! Give it up already! They ain't gonna show and I'm fuckin' hungry!" Angel shouted at Lew from the dining table. Lew ignored him, pulling his ears back, tapping his tail on the ground impatiently.

"Come on… where the Hell are they…" Lew muttered to himself. Charlie approached quietly behind him.

"Lewey… it really is getting a little late…" Charlie spoke to Lew calmly.

"No…" Lewis replied, blank and quiet, continuing his waiting.

"Lewey…"

"Fuck off," Lew replied, still flat.

Charlie frowned, and slowly walked back to the dining room.

Lew looked back at Charlie, then back at the door. He pulled his ears back, frowned, and closed his eyes, as he slowly ambled away from the door.

Just as he began, a knock came from the door. Upon hearing it, Lew scrambled back toward the door, his claw-like nails scraping the floor. Charlie turned back to Lew, smiling at his excitement.

Lew straightened himself out, regaining his composure, attempting to hide his enthusiasm as he slowly turned open the door.

There was Sebastian, only Sebastian, standing in front of the doorway, a large, hard, black case slung over his back. Lew raised an eyebrow and frowned. Just then, Susan stepped out from behind the titanic reptile.

"Merry Christmas!" She gave a wide, fang revealing smile, waving at Lew enthusiastically. She wore a tight fitting, strapless dress. Her finger and toenails were painted with alternating colors; red, green, red, then green again, and her hair was braided all the way down into a long, thick, red ponytail.

"Merry Christmas," Lew smiled, gawking at her for a few seconds before shaking it off and leading the two demons behind him into the Hotel. Susan moved closer to his side.

Sue giggled. "You have no idea how hard it is to fly in a strapless."

"No I do not," Lew replied matter-of-factly.

"Hello!" Charlie singsonged, sliding in front of the three demons. "You must be Lewey- Lewis' family." She extended a hand in friendship.

Sue gave a small half smile at Lew, looking at him thru the corner of her eye. "You could say that."

She hesitated slightly, before slowly grasping Charlie's hand, giving it a light shake. Sebastian gave Charlie's hand a shake next, his powerful grip nearly crushing her fingers; she let out a pained peep in response.

"Dinner's in the dining room; straight into the lobby, then to the right," Charlie pushed out, painfully.

As the three began to head for the dining room, they were cut off by a suddenly appearing Radio Demon.

"Well hello!" He chimed cheerily. The three other demons jumped back in surprise, Lew slightly less thow, being aware of Alastor's presence in the hotel.

"Oh god…" Sue mumbled beneath her breath, still recoiled back in surprise.

"What was that my dear? I didn't hear you!" Alastor quizzed, continuing with his enthusiastic front.

"Oh god," She mumbled again, still frozen in position. Alastor then suddenly apparated behind her, wrapping an arm around her in a way that seemed like an attempt to console, though he put his arm in a position so that it directly cradled her breasts, solely in an attempt to get a rise from her.

She looked at him affronted, before quickly retaliating with a swipe of her sharp fingernails. In response, Alastor snapped his neck in half backwards. Susan stared in horror, slowly moving his arm from her tits, and sliding away from him.

Alastor quickly snapped his head back into position, slipping over to Sebastian. "And how are you this fine Christmas day, my reptilian friend?"

Sebastian stared at him soulesly, the flames in his eye sockets flickering slightly.

"Good to hear!" Alastor cheered happily in 'response'. "Now, if you'll excuse me, you three may head to dinner! I have some business to attend to of my own before we eat!"

The Radio Demon hummed as he nonchalantly trotted off toward his room. As soon as the door closed, and he was out of ear shot, Susan slowly turned to Lew.

"Why… why the fuck is he here?" She peeped nervously.

"Oh. Well, he's here for the enjoyment of watching patients fuck up for eternity," Lew replied flatly.

"Of course, what was I thinking," Susan responded sarcastically. "He hasn't killed anybody yet?"

"No. But before you eat you may want to let me sniff your food. Just in case."

...

Everyone had been seated at the table, crowded with both food and company, for well over twenty more minutes; Charlie had asked everyone to wait to eat until Alastor and Nifty showed up.

Everyone else was present: Husk was asleep; Sebastian was frozen and staring into space like a machine; Lew was asleep as Husk was, resting his head Susan's lap creating a bridge between their two chairs; Susan was passively petting his head, staring at her fingernails boredly; Vaggie was looking about nervously, as if she expected Alastor to appear out of nowhere at any second; and Charlie was resting her head on her hand, looking down sadly.

"Hello!" Alastor's voice echoed from the doorway. Nifty was sitting on his head.

Everyone at the table jumped in surprise, Lew banging his head on the table and toppling his chair, and Vaggie shooting straight up; it was unknowable whether she was more surprised by his sudden appearance, or the fact he used the doorway like a normal person.

Alastor adjusted his bow tie as he took his seat at the table. Nifty jumped off his head and proceeding to hers.

"Who's hungry? I know I am! Hahahah!" Alastor chimed.

"Right!" Charlie smiled, clapping her hands together. "Vaggie," Charlie heaved, dragging the goose from the center of the crowded table to her and Vaggie, "do you want to carve the goose?" Charlie smiled eagerly.

She smiled. "I'd love to." Vaggie grabbed the knife and cut into the bird cleanly. From the corner of her eye, she saw Alastor, staring at her directly, not blinking his red glowing eyes. She squinted at him suspiciously, stabbing the goose more aggressively. She didn't break eye contact with him until she heard the sound of dishwater being sliced, and then table.

"Uh, Vaggie…" Charlie stared at her with a… 'concerned' expression.

"Wha- oh!" Vaggie recoiled at the sight of the sliced plate.

Charlie slowly turned her head to the rest of the table. "Goose's ready."

Plates of food were passed out one by one to the company at the table; a relief to everyone, especially Angel. Lewis set his chair back up, and scrambled back upon it. As plates were passed before Susan and Lewis, Lew leaned down and sniffed them both, giving Sue a thumbs up: no poison.

As Angel received his, he slowly reached for his fork-

"No!" Charlie barked.

Angel quickly recoiled, glaring at her.

Husk was asleep, so Charlie gently sat the plate in front of him, and pat him on the head.

Alastor smiled deviously as he received his; no one was aware of his impending plan. Not even Nifty, who was smiling happily as she received her plate.

"Okay. Now that everybody's got their food, we can start eating." Charlie said to the table, smiling.

"Finally!" Angel quickly grabbed his fork and put a bite of goose into his mouth.

Alastor chuckled to himself, subtly snapping his fingers beneath the table. All of the food quickly burst into flames.

"Shit!" Lew quickly snatched his cap from his head and began beating the fire with it. The cap itself then turned to flame, and he attempted to blow it out fruitlessly.

Vaggie darted from the room to obtain a fire extinguisher.

Susan tried to beat the flames out with a plate, which, as you can imagine, didn't work very well: it shattered.

Angel, who at the time the food set a flame had a piece of goose in his mouth, quickly spit it out, proceeding to scream into the void with both anger and pain.

After the fire had been burning for just a bit to long, Vaggie came back into the room with the fire extinguisher, shooting at the flames aggressively.

Once the fire was out, the meal attendees observed the ruins of what was once Christmas dinner.

Angel broke the silence first: "HOLY FUCK!"

"Oh no! What an unfortunate event, just terrible! Looks like this was all just a big waste of time!" Alastor said, way to cheerily.

"You think we're fucking stupid don't you?!" Vaggie growled, giving Alastor a firm death glare.

"After watching how your guests responded to that fire… maybe!"

Vaggie stared at him with a livid expression. Charlie was still frozen in her seat after the fire had burned. It was only now that she broke down onto the table and began crying. Vaggie quickly embraced her, trying to calm her down.

"Get out of here you egotistical, shit eating, fuck faced, PRICK!" Vaggie yelled at the radio demon.

"Haha! No! Why, then I'd miss all the fun!"

"Fun?!" Vaggie hissed. She had a fiery temper by nature, but it was incredibly rare that she would become this furious. "This is fun for you?!"

"God damnit!" Angel shouted, mostly to himself. He slammed his head on the table. "I'm so fuckin' hungry man!"

"Shut up you whiny whore!" Vaggie growled at Angel, before returning her attention back to Alastor. "Tú- tú hijo de perra! I ought to beat the living shit out of you!"

"Vaggie, please stop…" Charlie sobbed. Vaggie quickly looked toward Charlie, proceeding to stare down at her feet as if ashamed. It was at this point, that Lewis began to lose his shit.

"HAH, hahahah!" Lew laughed, slapping the table once with his wing. "You- you- Hahah!"

"What," Vaggie hissed, "What the fuck is it!"

"You- she- she's all fuckin' sobbing over there about a goose!" Lew continued to laugh like a maniac, "newsflash kiddo: nobody gives a fuck about the goose!"

"I do!" Angel growled.

"Me too, kinda…" Sue mumbled.

"You- you- wait what?" Lew made a double take in confusion.

Everyone stared straight at Lew, most with looks of distaste or concern, except Sebastian.

Sebastian pulled the black case from his back, gently setting it on the table. He rested his hands on its small, golden latches. He looked at Lew as if for validation. Lew knew exactly what he was going to do, and so did Susan, whom's facial expression softened. Lew nodded to Sebastian in affirmation.

Sebastian popped open the latches, lifting the lid of the case, and pulling out a well worn, wooden, acoustic guitar. He strummed it once, making sure that it was in tune. He then proceeded to strum a tune, light and gentle. The burning flames in his eye sockets even began to dim. It was then, that Lew began to sing, softly.

"Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright-"

Susan began to join in, with an impressively melodic voice: "Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child-"

The two both continued at the same time: "Holy infant, so tender and mild. Sleep, in heavenly peace. Sleep, in heavenly peace."

They continued on, beginning the verse once again: "Silent night, holy night-"

At this point in the song, Charlie began to recover from her tears, and joined in. After a line or two more, Vaggie joined in, then even Angel Dust joined. Finally, all of them singing, they reached the final lines: "Christ, our savior, is born. Christ, our savior, is born."

Lewis smiled calmly, and leaned back in his seat. Susan calmly rubbed him on the head.

Lew chuckled. "You know something ironic?"

"Yeah?" Sue replied.

"I'm an atheist."

…

Some say, the Radio Demon's heart grew three sizes that day… except for the Radio Demon… and, well, everyone. But Charlie thought it. And who knows: maybe it did.

Lew was finally getting ready for bed. His friends- family, had said goodbye at the door, contented and happy, and so was Lew. He took his coat off, and his cap, and, before entering his bed, he pulled his photo out from his coat, and looked at his other family.

"Merry Christmas." He mumbled, setting the photo on his nightstand, and crawling into his bed.


	8. The Branch Chapter 7: Wounds

Lewis was bored; ever since Christmas a few days back, nothing interesting had happened in the hotel since.

Lew was pacing back and forth the lobby of the hotel like a zoo animal, having nothing to do.

Charlie sat on the couch, tracing his slow movements with her eyes, before an idea popped into her head.

"Oh! Hey Lewey-

"Yes?!" He quickly interrupted, keeping a blank expression, but cocking his head and ears up in eager curiosity.

"I-you... Listen, there's something I wanted to run by you-"

"Yes?" Lew reiterated with a grimace. He flicked an ear in slight irritation; hopefully she wasn't about to ask for any information from him.

"Okay, so, of course you know Susan, right?"

"Of course I do. Do you?" Lew pulled both his ears back.

"Not as well as you," Charlie chuckled nervously. "And that's why I wanted to ask you-"

"Yes?" Lew reiterated for the third time glaring at Charlie.

"Do you… do you think Susan would be interested in the hotel?" Charlie asked curiously, smiling and cocking her head to the side.

"No," Lew responded flatly.

"Why not?" Charlie asked, a sad expression on her face.

"Because she's not upset with sinning; she had nothing to lose, and she has nothing to gain," Lew answered, "Basically, she's just way cooler than I am is the problem."

"Can you at least try to convince her?"

"No."

"Come on!" Charlie whined, "if you could get her, and maybe even Sebastian into the hotel, we would really be able to get up our reputation!"

"Sebastian too?" Lew stared at her in disbelief, "You get one if you get any at all!"

"Okay fine, Sue!" Charlie responded, scared.

"Susan!" Lew corrected.

"Okay, okay!" Charlie said, frantically.

"Alright." Lew calmed down abruptly. "What do I get if I do this?"

"A hug and my gratitude?" Charlie replied with uncertainty.

"And your debt?" Lew raised an ear and eyebrow at her.

"Come on, please…" Charlie gave Lew the sweetest puppy dog eyes she could manage.

"Fucking... fine." Lew glared at her, flattening both his ears back again.

"Yay!" Charlie smiled, pure, child-like happiness on her face.

Lew grumbled as he slowly trotted toward the hotel door. What he didn't notice, however, was that the photo that he kept in his pocket had slipped out, and gently fallen on the ground. He quickly shut the door behind him and flew into the air.

Charlie had seen the paper fall from his pocket, and raised an eyebrow, she walked over to it, and picked it up from the ground. "What?"

…

Lew banked downward from the sky, and landed on the front step of Susan's condominium.

He grumpily traveled from the lobby to the elevator, to Sue's hall, and to her door. He took a deep breath in thru his nose. However, he picked

up an unusual, herbal odor from the air. Sue was probably high.

Lew knocked on the door. "Sue? You there?" Lew could hear her giggle from inside the apartment.

"Who is it?" She sang.

"Lewis." Lew replied blankly.

"Do you have food?"

"No I do not." Lew pulled his ears back in impatience.

"Go away and come back with food; I'm hungry."

"...No," Lew replied flatly, glaring at the door.

"Pwease?" Susan cooed from the other side of the door.

"Pwease?" Lew reiterated, flicking one of his ears up in confusion, still glaring at the door. He straightened himself out "Son of a- fine. What do you want?"

"Tacos- wait, no, hamburger! Extra onions please!"

Lew sighed. "From where?"

"Where there are burgers!" Sue replied triumphantly.

"Fucking… whatever. Give me like, twenty minutes," Lew replied, calming slightly.

"Ten!" Susan said demandingly.

"Thirty it is!" Lew replied, galloping away from the door before he could face protest.

…

Charlie, sat on the lobby couch, staring at the photo she had found thoughtfully. She had never seen anything like it before; demons didn't tend to carry prints with them, let alone of humans. So far, her best conclusion was that the family in the photo must have been Lewey's, and that the women and child were his wife and daughter.

"Hey Charlie."

Charlie jumped upon hearing Vaggie's voice as she came down the stairs.

"Oh! Huh! Hi Vaggie," Charlie piped in response, attempting to hide the photo in between the couch cushions.

"Charlie… what do you have?" Vaggie asked, squinting at Charlie suspiciously.

"Um… nothing?" Charlie smiled sheepishly, "heh, heh…"

"Is it something I should be concerned about?"

Charlie sighed, and slouched over, "Yeah maybe…"

"What is it?" Vaggie sighed, rolling her eyes and taking a seat next to Charlie.

Charlie pulled the photo out from between the couch cushions. "Check this out." Charlie moved the photo over to Vaggie so she could get a good look at it. "This… this fell out of Lewey's pocket. Who do you think these people are?"

"Well," Vaggie intensified her expression thoughtfully, "It's clear, and in color, so it's probably pretty recent." Vaggie pointed at the two girls in the photo. "Lewis is a dude, so those people aren't him. Considering he seems to be middle age at least, and he died in 2019, he's not the one taking the picture. So… he's probably the guy." Vaggie pointed at the, "guy".

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too."

"Wow. You could have just said that and I wouldn't have had to go thru all of that."

Vaggie glared at Charlie somewhat, and Charlie simply stared at her guiltily. She raised a finger up and booped Vaggie on the nose: "Boop."

"Hey bitches, what's goin' on over here?" Angel said, sliding onto the couch next to them.

"None of your damn business Angel," Vaggie growled at him as he slowly slid closer.

"It is now honey," Angel replied sassily as all of a sudden, one of his spare extra arms quickly snatched the photo out of Charlie's hands. "Yoink!"

"Hey!" Charlie squealed, desperately trying to snatch the picture back.

Angel quickly held it in front of his face. "Ooh!"

It was then that Vaggie quickly yanked it back.

"Hey!" Angel retorted.

"It's none of your fucking business!" Vaggie hissed back.

"Come on, let me look!" Angel attempted to re-obtain the photo again, this time grabbing it with two hands. Vaggie attempted to yank it back.

"Stop it!" Charlie cried desperately as the two other demons quibbled over the photo.

It was then that the most unfortunate happened: the photo ripped clean in half. Vaggie stared at the photo, wide eyed and frozen. So did Charlie.

Angel glanced between the two quickly. "What?"

"Oh, fuck…" Charlie mumbled, still completely frozen.

…

Lew held a large, plastic bag by its handles in his mouth. He raised a free wing and knocked on the door. "Hey shushan!" He slobbered out thru the bag handles, "I gosh your frucking frood."

Susan pulled open the door. "What up?"

"You mern, 'whash's urp'?" Lew asked.

"Let me get that," Sue took the bag from Lew's mouth. Wincing slightly at how wet the handles were.

He spat out the taste of plastic before continuing, "You mean, 'what's up'?" Lew asked again, "I was unaware that smoking weed turned you into a dislexic."

Sue chuckled slightly, "It doesn't: it just makes me stop giving a damn and I find everything funny," She replied, "it also makes me hungry as shit."

"Fantastic," Lew said sarcastically. "I was gonna ask you something, but the pot smell is a little… overwhelming."

Sue chuckled again "I can crack a window."

Lew thought for a minute, narrowing his eyes at her, "Alright… fine…"

…

Still in the hotel lobby, Charlie, Vaggie, and Angel we're still stressing over the damaged photo.

"Okay," Angel started, sliding the roughly taped back together photo onto the coffee table in front of Charlie, "So I tried to tape it back together, but, heheh… I uh… may have ripped it more..." He gestured to the face of the young girl, which was ripped off of the photo, no longer even visible.

Vaggie glared at him, and so did Charlie.

"Angel… what the fuck." Charlie glared at Angel venomously. "I'm not sure what this photo means, but It must be important to Lew, and you just completely fucked it up!"

"I-uh-" Angel stammered, before Vaggie cut him off.

"Just fuck off Angel!" She gave Angel a venomous glare.

"Vaggie stop it! You contributed to this too!" Charlie scolded Vaggie sternly, her face contorted into an expression of aggression.

"I-hmph…" Vaggie slouched over in guilt, putting her hands into her lap.

Charlie grabbed the photo from the coffee table. "So far as you two have tried to help, you have only made things worse!" She put the damaged picture into her blazer. "I am going to take this picture, return it to Lew, and apologize honestly!"

…

Lewis was settled next to Susan on her small couch, and Susan was busy with the burger that Lewis had brought for her. She let out a small burp as she finished it, then turning to Lew.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" She asked, wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her sweater.

"I, uh… mmm," Lew stumbled thru his words, "why am I here?"

"That would be what I asked you," Sue raised an eyebrow in a smug expression.

"Right… so, that Charlie chic at the hotel," Lew, started, remembering the purpose of his presence, "she asked me to ask you if you wanted to ask register for the… hotel… treatment, program."

"So you're a messenger pigeon now?" Sue asked, still with her smug face, stretching out on the couch a bit.

"Hey, I didn't want to do this! Hell, I didn't even have plans to show up." Lew pulled back his ears, and glared at nothing in particular.

"Alright pupper, chill!" Sue replied giggling, leaning over to the small coffee table, grabbing a rolled joint off it, as well as a lighter, and holding the two items out to Lew.

"Smoke it," she said flatly, "It'll make you feel better."

"...No." Lew replied blankly, his ears folded back, grimacing at the joint.

"You smoke cigars, you drink. How is this were you draw the line?" Sue continued to hold the two items in front of Lew.

"Nope." Lew pushed the joint and lighter back toward Sue.

Sue pouted at Lew, before gaining a devious grin and leaning in toward him. "Hey," she cooed flirtatiously, "If you do it I'll give you something special."

"No you will not," Lew replied succinctly, turning away from her nervously.

"Okay fine," Sue grumbled. "Alright, as your friend, I know you're always super stressed out and I know this will make you feel better. Besides, it's better for my conscious that you be high here with me instead of vomiting up your guts in some random place." Sue held the two items toward him again. "Come on man…"

Lew grumbled, before grabbing the joint, and calmly closing Sue's hand onto the lighter. "I have my own."

"'Kay." Sue replied, pulling the lighter back to herself, and smiling at Lew with soulful, though bloodshot, eyes.

Lew hesitantly put the joint into his mouth, taking his lighter from his coat and lighting it. He then took a long drag of the smoke before taking the joint out of his mouth momentarily and exhaling.

Sue leaned into him and cocked her head to the side. "So, what do you think."

"It's not disgusting." Lew slowly savored the taste in his mouth. "It does taste kind of like a tree though."

Sue giggled, as she grabbed another joint for herself. "It kind of does doesn't it?"

…

Still on the couch, Susan and Lewis were busy laughing hysterically about a joke they had already forgotten.

Lew finished chuckling, proceeding to absentmindedly lay his head down on Susan's lap. "I'm tired."

"Me too…" Sue replied, leaning back further on the couch.

Lew scooted further up Sue's body, snuggling into her belly and closing his eyes.

"Hello?" Sue looked at him befuddled.

"Don't question it," Lew replied, his eyes still closed, and him still curled up on Susan's belly.

Suddenly, he craned his head up and stared straight at nothing, one of his ears twitching, and an alert expression on his face. He glanced at Sue, then back at nothing. "Don't question this either." Lew quickly stuck his lips to Sue's, Sue scrambled a bit before she eventually calmed down to it, wrapping her arms around Lew's back.

Then, suddenly once more, Lew pulled away from the kiss, leaving behind a small trail of saliva. He stared into space for a brief second, his pupils the diameter of pinholes.

"Lew?" Susan asked calmly.

In response to this, Lew yanked his body out of Sue's arms, and quickly scuffled thru the apartment, and to the door. He quickly glanced behind him at Sue. "I-uh... sorry!"

Lew quickly ran out of the apartment and down the hallway.

"Wait!" Sue yelled loudly at him as he quickly entered the elevator and began jamming the buttons. The elevator door promptly closed, as Lew made his descent with an expression on his face as if he had just seen a ghost.

…

Charlie was waiting. Waiting in front of the hotel doors patiently, and waiting for Lewey to return. She paced back and forth, back and forth, before finally resting to quietly bang her head against the door.

As she hit the door, it suddenly opened, and she was shoved out of the way. Lewey entered thru the doors.

"Hey Lewey," Charlie mumbled from behind the door. Lew jumped slightly at her unannounced presence.

"Oh. Uh… hey." Lew mumbled, as he slowly continued walking toward his room.

"You-you okay?" Charlie asked sincerely.

"Fine," Lew replied, quick and succinct.

"Listen, um… there-" Charlie started her confession, only to freeze as Lew stopped dead in his tracks, spreading his impressively large wings from his body.

"My… picture?"

"Yes- how did you know?" Charlie cocked her head to the side.

"I can... smell it." Lew slowly turned around and reached one of his clawed wing hands toward Charlie, gesturing for Charlie to give him the photo.

"I- uh- listen I-" Charlie stumbled out, anxiously fiddling with her ponytail.

"It's fine," Lew growled, maintaining his position, "I don't care that you found it, I don't care that you looked at it. Just give it to me now, and don't ask questions."

"But I-"

"Give. Me. The photo," Lew hissed gesturing with his wing hand again, growing impatient.

Charlie breathed heavily, slowly reaching into her blazer, and pulling out the taped and damaged photo. Immediately upon seeing the presence of tape, Lew snatched the photo, and upon seeing the ripped face, his ear twitched, and he smirked. But not in happiness, or any positivity at all, but instead, crazed and deranged.

"I'm sorry-" Charlie mumbled, as if ashamed of herself.

And then, all in a single, fluid motion, Lew grabbed Charlie's arm, and pulled her in, covering her mouth and nose with his free wing hand.

He stared straight at her, maintaining a deranged expression, and slowly squeezing her arm tighter and tighter, until he felt the give of her skin breaking, and the warm sensation of her blood on the bases of his claws. Charlie tried to scream, but any noise she could make was hindered by Lew's hand placed upon her mouth.

Lew loosened his grip slightly, before quickly sliding his hand down her shoulder, ripping three long, shallow wounds into her flesh, and then quickly moving the hand he racked her with upward, and grasping her by the neck.

"You won't tell anyone about these wounds. Do I make myself clear?" He growled, tightening his grasp on her neck until he heard the sounds of her asphyxiating. Charlie nodded quickly as best she could, tears dribbling from her eyes; she didn't know if she could hold on much longer without oxygen.

Then, Lew looked into her eyes. Her teary, fear ridden eyes. That face… Then, he looked at the long, bloody wounds he had carved into the meat of her arms. And his face quickly turned to one of fear and guilt. He promptly loosened his grip on Charlie, regripping her once more and pulling her into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry Ally…" Lew weeped into her shoulder, slowly stroking her back.

Charlie's fear had not changed. She was frozen, motionless like a corpse as Lewis held her. Then, she heard footsteps coming toward the door.

Vaggie walked around the corner and witnessed the scene. She saw the wounds on her girlfriends arms, and the blood trickling from them and she saw the blood on Lew's claws. Not taking a moment to hesitate, she pulled a knife from her dress, and ran at Lew.

Lew slowly let go of Charlie, turning toward the women racing toward him, dazed as he recovered from his trance, not quite in the moment.

"What?" He mumbled, just seconds before he felt the cold steel of a thrown knife lodging itself in his shoulder blaze. He yelped in pain like a dog, quickly scuffling back from Charlie and Vaggie. Vaggie grabbed Charlie and pulled her away from Lew.

"Get the fuck out," She stumbled out her mouth, tightening her hold on her loved one.

"What?" Lew mumbled once more, glancing panicked at the scene unfolding all around him. He could barely comprehend it when he felt another blade bury itself in the shoulder of one of his wings. He yelped yet again, quickly turning and running toward the hotel doors, dragging his wing behind him, producing a thin trail of blood as he ran. As he ran from the hotel, he heard the repeated sounds of knives being thrown, and burying themselves in the ground around him as he ran away.

"Charlie, honey, are you okay?" Vaggie cried as she held Charlie closer to her.

Charlie said nothing. She had seen death before, and she had scene people get shot. She had seen people get hurt, and she had seen people get stabbed. But she had never been in such a horrifying situation as the one she was just in. Something so intimately terrifying. She could still feel the searing pain from her wounds, and the slow aching of a bruise forming on her throat. She trembled in Vaggie's arms, as the day slowly faded away from around her. She felt cold. So cold…

…

Lew had to hide; he couldn't go to his own house. He needed to find somewhere where nobody would find him.

He picked a dim, dank alleyway in one of the pentagrams many thin, offshooting streets. Hiding behind a dumpster, he began to tend to his injuries, attempting to fight thru the pain of yanking the knives from his flesh.

"Holy fuck! There you are!" Sue's panicked voice came down from the air as she hovered above Lew. He yelped, and attempted to scuffle under the adjacent dumpster, failing to fit himself beneath it.

"Calm down! Calm down..." Susan glided down, and tried to soothe Lew, slowly rubbing his hindquarters, it being the only part of his body she had immediate access to. Lew slowly began to slow his breathing, and slowly yanked himself back out from under the dumpster.

"There we go," Sue cooed calmly. She then noticed his injuries, and the clear broken tendons in his wing. "Oh my god… what happened?"

Lew hesitated, before choking slightly on his words a bit as he spoke, looking down at his feet: "I thought you would be mad at me…"

"For what?" A realization then formed on Susan's face. "Oh, right… no… no I'm not angry at you for that."

"Why-" Lew attempted to start, before being interrupted by Sue's lips pressing against his; he kissed her back, and they shared a quick moment between each other. After Sue slowly pulled away, Lew calmly layed down on Sue's lap.

"I hurt somebody again… I cut them," Lew said flatly, rubbing his head up to Sue's plush belly, a pained and saddened expression on his face.

"Oh…" Sue's face sank a bit. "Okay… How about we get these knives out of you. Then I want you to tell me ALL about it. 'Kay?" Sue said calmly, holding up Lew's head to look her in the eye.

"Yes… okay." Lew replied gruffly.

...


	9. The Branch Chapter 8: Talk

Upon seeing the knives buried in Lewis's flesh, Susan took him home with her so that she could have a go trying to remove them.

The two were on the couch, and Lew was laying his head on Susan's lap, as she was attempting to yank out the knives from his flesh.

"Fuck!" Lew barked yet again, it not being the first time that he had shouted the word.

"Sorry!" Sue piped, immediately beginning to stroke his back to calm him.

"It's fine," Lew replied, settling back down into Susan's lap, "Just… stop trying to do it slowly. Try to just yank them out in one go."

"Won't that hurt?" Susan cocked her head to the side, rubbing Lew's head soothingly.

"Not as much as what you're doing now," Lew retorted, not moving even slightly from his position.

"Alright…" Sue grabbed the knife in his shoulder. "You ready?"

"Not at all, do it." The only movement Lew made was to squeeze his eyes shut and brace. Sue heaved as she yanked the knife out from between Lew's shoulder blade. Lew yelped like a dog who just got his tail stepped on.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" Sue shouted, bouncing back slightly with the bloody knife in her hand.

"Put the fucking washcloth on it!" Lew barked, burying the claws of his last movable wing into the couch.

"Got it!" Sue scrambled for a washcloth, the closest thing she could immediately find as a bandage, and dabbed it around Lew's shoulder before tying it around it.

"Alright, how do you want me to get out the second one?"

"Same thing. This time, just don't tell me when you're gonna pull- FUCK!" Lew yelped as Susan yanked the second knife out of his shoulder, quickly tying another washcloth around the newly opened wound.

"You said not to tell you," Sue purred tauntingly.

"Fair enough," Lew grumbled thru his gritted teeth, before collapsing into Sue's lap. He opened one of his eyes, glancing up at her, before quickly hopping up and licking her on the lips, promptly collapsing back into her lap. Sue froze in shock.

"Some of my blood got on your mouth," Lew said to her flatly.

"Well... thank you," Sue cooed, bending over and pecking Lew on the head.

…

Charlie was sitting on a bed, her and Vaggie's bed, still possessing the wounds inflicted by Lew's sharp claws on her arm. Vaggie was helping mend them with some gauze bandages she had found in their bathroom medicine cabinet.

"Keep holding still…" Vaggie mumbled, as she finished up wrapping Charlie's arm, "okay, there we go."

Charlie stared straight ahead, her eyes wide as if she had seen a ghost. She hadn't said a word since the earlier event, aside from a few small whimpers.

"Are you gonna talk to me?" Vaggie asked, frowning at Charlie more out of concern than anything.

"Why did he do that…" Charlie mumbled, still staring into nothing, with pupils the size of pinholes.

"I don't know, but fuck him." Vaggie gently put her hands on Charlie's shoulders. "It's Hell; people do things like this. There's not much of a reason to ask why."

"No Vaggie, there is." Charlie slowly began to come back to her regular self. "The reason I opened this hotel… look, it's my- our- job to ask why." Charlie grabbed Vaggie's hands from her shoulders, holding them tightly. "Tomorrow… tomorrow I want to find him. I want to find him, and I want to talk to him."

"What if he hurts you again?" Vaggie said, her eye wide with concern.

"If you're really worried, you can come with." Charlie said, smiling reassuringly.

"... Oh- okay…" Vaggie looked down with worry.

"It'll be fine Vaggie." Charlie smiled.

"You better be right…"

…

Lew explained everything that had happened the night before, and that he had no idea why, and due to this, Lew didn't get to go home that night as Susan didn't trust him to be safe. Because of the small amount of room, Lew, though initially opposed to the idea, had to sleep right next to Sue. Sue draped the two of them with a white blanket, and Lew eventually became comfortable with her warm presence as he slowly drifted to sleep.

The next morning, Lew slowly opened his eyes, instinctively stretching his wings out behind him. He froze, pulling them back in, only when he heard Sue sneeze behind him.

Lew glanced over his shoulder at her, his eyes wide as if he felt he had done something wrong.

Sue quickly shook herself off, giggling before smiling at Lew. "Good morning."

"Mhm," Lew replied, relaxing his face slightly, and fluttering off the couch to his feet.

"You want breakfast?" Sue asked, quickly hopping off the couch herself.

"You can't cook," Lew responded, pivoting his head toward her and giving a slight glower.

"Yeah, but I can order in like a motherfucker," Sue said with mock pride.

"Fine," Lew replied, slowly crawling back to the couch, sitting on it. He remained in an alert posture, his body tensed as he sat.

"You wanna relax a bit there dude?" Susan asked, concern on her face.

"I don't tend to do that," Lew responded, "you should know this by now."

"Right…"

It was just then that Susan heard a knocking at the door. Lewis quickly scrambled off the couch, running around it, before trying to jam himself behind it to hide.

"It's probably just Sebastian, Lew…" Susan said in an attempt to soothe him.

"Check first," Lew piped from his hiding place.

"Fine," Sue slowly strutted toward the door. As opposed to poking an eye thru the peephole, as there wasn't one on account of the fact that you can never be too careful in Hell, she simply opened the door. At the door, Charlie stood, not wearing her blazer, and only wearing her button up shirt and black pants, the bloodied bandage from her wounds still on her arm. Vaggie was standing vigilant behind her like a loyal dog.

"Is Lewis here?" Charlie stuttered nervously, looking down from Sue's eyes. Susan squinted at her.

"Why?" She asked with suspicion.

"I- I just want to talk to him. I wanna know what happened last night…" Charlie replied with pure honesty.

"Why's she here?" Susan asked, gesturing her chin at Vaggie.

"Moral support?" Charlie said, smiling slightly, one of her eyes twitching.

"He's not here," Susan said flatly, starting to close the door.

"Wait!" Charlie piped, attempting to block the closing door.

"What," Susan whined, quickly opening the door once more.

"Do- do you know we're I could find him? I… I just want to help…" Charlie looked down at her feet.

Sue eyed her over, still with a slight bit of suspicion. "No."

"Oh… okay." Charlie replied, her expression growing sadder.

Lew could hear everything, even the whispers; he was a dog after all. Upon hearing Charlie's earnest tone, he began to feel as if maybe he should talk to her… maybe she could be the one to finally help him. Sue was sweet and all, but she wasn't a psychiatrist. Lew slowly crawled out from behind the couch.

"I'm here," he mumbled, looking down at his paws the whole time.

"Hey," Charlie spoke warmly, "want to talk?"

"Sure…" Lew mumbled once more, still looking at his paws.

Susan smiled at Lew, slowly sliding out of Charlie and Vaggie's way. Charlie smiled at Sue as she entered her home, and Vaggie glared at her, presumably for lying. As soon as Vaggie looked away, Sue stuck her tongue out at her.

...

The four of them moved the coffee table, sitting on the ground on account of the fact that Susan's apartment had almost no space for company.

Lew spent a good amount of time discussing the day before. He skimped out on any details he didn't want Charlie knowing. He mentioned he had weed, though he neglected to say we're he had obtained it from.

"... After that, I suddenly started doing things I wouldn't have normally. I felt hyper alert. When I saw that picture I… it felt like I had gone somewhere else. It… it felt so... real." Lewis finished, looking down steadily.

"It's okay Lew. I think I kinda have something to go off of now: thank you." Charlie gave Lew a relaxed smile.

"Sure," Lew replied, maintaining his usual flat tone.

"There- there's just one more thing I'd like to ask you."

"Yes?" Lew asked, looking up at her and raising an eyebrow.

"You… you mentioned a.. name… while you did… it. Ally. Who is that?" Charlie asked, some concern on her face.

Upon hearing those words, Lew's expression changed abruptly. His ear twitched, and his pupils shrank. Susan readied herself, knowing what was about to happen.

"Don't say that name," Lew mumbled, staring straight into Charlie's eyes.

"I'm sorry, I-" Charlie started, before quickly being cut off by Lew.

"Don't you FUCKING say that name!" He growled, leaping from the ground and pouncing at her. Susan quickly jumped up, grabbing Lewis by the back, and forcing his face to look her in the eye. Vaggie, meanwhile, grabbed Charlie, holding her close to protect her.

"Lew! LEW!" Susan yelled, forcing Lew to look at her.

His expression slowly softened, returning to normal. Still in Susan's arms, he looked down as if ashamed. "Leave," Lew hissed, "I don't want to talk right now…".

"Okay," Charlie piped, already being quickly escorted out the door by Vaggie, who slammed it behind the two.

Lew buried his face into Susan's chest.

"Shh, shh," Sue cooed as she slowly stroked his back, "I'm right here."

Lew quietly grumbled into her chest.

"How's this: tomorrow, we can head back to the hotel, and... I'll come stay with you. You know… to make sure you're safe." Sue stroked Lew's back, as he slowly lifted his head up to look at her.

"Yes… yes, okay." He continued to look straight at her, before craning his neck up, pressing his lips against Sue's. She peeped softly, slowly giving in.

Lew backed down, pulling his lip away from hers. He looked at her in earnest. "How did I do?"

"Great," Sue cooed, holding Lew's warm body close to her

…


End file.
